The white emperor
by Fully-op
Summary: After Shen's defeat, an old rival of him seizes government over Gongmen city in an attempt to learn the secret of his weapons, oblivious to the fact that he whose legacy he is trying to steal may still have somethig to say about it.
1. A new man

The white emperor

Chapter I – A new man

"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment" - Buddha

Two weeks had passed since the white peacock's death and the people of Gongmen were slowly recovering from his spartan regime. But although it had retrieved it's freedom, the city was still haunted by the shadows of fear and uncertainty.

After the departure of the furious five and the dragon warrior, the master's council had dissolved and the city was left ungoverned; and that frightened everybody, because while having a leader, even if it was Lord Shen, it existed some form of control and safety; but now, chaos was taking over the streets. Encouraged by the absence of the city guard and the wolf army, a crowd of thieves, thugs, raiders, smugglers, pirates and other criminals of the worst kind had arrived from the countryside and had literally taken over the city. No one dared to go out of home after nightfall, trade had frozen and ruin hung over the province, but it was then that Lord Qiao arrived.

He was the son of Lord Jian Yu's brother, Lord Shen's cousin. After a detailed study of the royal peafowl clan's bloodline rights, scribes had found out that, without the master's council, Lord Qiao was the rightful lord of Gongmen city and the entire province of Xu. Upon hearing of the city's desperate situation he had traveled there with a full company of boar warriors to "retake" the city. The days following his arrival he swiftly cleaned the city and most of the criminals were imprisoned or executed. He then proceeded to revive the city's economy, and before anyone could notice, it had been almost a week since his arrival and normality was being reestablished.

The lord was now standing in the middle of the Dōnggōng palace's front garden. He was watching the sunset behind the city, enjoying the warm pink light in his blue feathers and, despite the weariness in his eyes, his beak bore a satisfied smile. He closed his eyes when he heard the ticking steps of another peafowl.

"You should get inside and get some rest, dear" said the peahen "you haven't stopped working since we got here"

"The hard part hasn't begun yet" replied Qiao. He opened his eyes and looked at Lady Xiu, his wife. She put her wing around his shoulder and looked at the city.

"It's beautiful" she said. Qiao nodded, unsure if she was talking about the city or the dawn. The couple remained there until the sun had set off completely and then returned to the palace.

The Dōnggōng palace was located at the eastern edge of the city, right over the coast, it was meant to be the royal peacocks' summer house. It was a large, square, three floors, construction, with a base of about ten square kilometers and a large garden in front of it. The new lords had established there with all of their entourage of assistants, due to the absence of the Tower of the Sacred Flame.

"Where is Shu?" asked the peacock as they crossed the door "I've noticed that she's a little distant"

"It's because of the trip and the confinement, she gets bored" answered Xiu, and then added "and she's not the only one that's being a little off lately"

Qiao smiled, accusing his wife reproach.

"I'm sorry, I promise that after I've taken care of the mess I'll spend more time with her. And... with you" he ended the phrase stroking her cheek.

"Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of work to do as well" smiled the peahen, leaning her head in her husband's hand.

They were standing at the bottom of the stairs of the main hall when they heard a young voice and clicking steps beneath them.

"Mom! Dad! Have you sen Wen?" They turned around to see their daughter walking towards them "He promised to play Mahjongg with me but he's nowhere to be found..."

"Well hello to you too" said Qiao "How was your day, Shu?"

"Pretty boring, actually" she replied "not that there's much to do in this huge _empty _palace" she placed special emphasis in the word empty.

"We'll let you go to the city in a few days, honey" said her mother, as they headed up the stairs, heading to the royal chambers.

"Yeah, and I'm to hibernate until then, right?"

Lord Qiao and Lady Xiu laughed at their daughter's acid humor.

"We're not sure it's completely safe for you to go out yet" said the lord.

"Yes, yes, I understand, it's just that I'm so bored, that little weakling was going to give me the rematch..." she said, looking at the wooden box that she was carrying, then she muttered "I'm sure I'll be able to _beat_ him the next time"

"Now _that's_ some competitive spirit" laughed her mother "But why don't you let the poor man get some sleep, he's been working so hard that I wouldn't be surprised if he fainted before picking up the first token. Why don't you play with us?"

They had arrived to the corridor that led to the living room and the sleeping chambers.

"Alright, I'll show you how much I've improved..."

"Lord Qiao!" The three peafowls looked at a black and white snake that was rushing towards them from across the corridor.

"There you are, you sneaky little COWARD!" yelled Shu. Her mother elbowed her and said "Good afternoon, Wen"

The reptile bowed to them while breathing hard.

"Hi there, Shu" he said "I was delayed by an issue"

"Ha! You are just scared of me destroying you" replied Shu.

"Hehe, not quite, but I can't play with you right now" said Wen, and he faced Qiao "Mi lord, there is an urgent matter that requires your immediate attention"

"Alright, Wen, I'll take care of it" said the lord, and then turned to his wife and daughter "I'll be done as fast as I can, why don't you start without me"

"Alright, let's go, Shu" Said the oldest peahen, putting a wing over her daughter's shoulder. Before leaving, Shu looked at the snake and pointed a feather at him.

"Don't think you got rid of me so easily, Wen! The next time we play I'm going to _crush_ you!"

When they were gone, the peacock and the snake headed for the lord's office.

"Looks like she's determined to beat you" Commented Qiao

"She still needs to practice" said the snake.

Wen was the lord's most trusted adviser, he was a banded wolf snake who was always extremely nervous and agitated, he had dedicated his life to science and he had a vast knowledge of math, astronomy, alchemy, laws, economy and engineering, he always carried a notebook, a brush and a flask of ink, and was Qiao's right hand at administrating the city. The snake was also his daughter's best friend. Even with his duties with both him and his wife, the reptile could still find time to entertain the princess AND read those huge alchemy volumes. One of the peacock's worst fears was that his valuable assessor would suffer a nervous collapse, which seemed most likely to happen sooner than later.

When they entered the office they sat down at the table, facing each other; lord Qiao spoke first:

"So, what's the urgent matter?"

"The search party at the factory failed to find one of the artifacts or a copy of the plans" Said Wen "nor have they found a living wolf in the city or it's surroundings, it seems that the few ones that survived the battle have fled the city"

Lord Qiao rubbed his eyes with the tips of his wings and sighed

"Look, Wen, I'm tired; and so are you, get to the point and let's..."

"Your men were able to retrieve three mostly unspoiled artefact's from the debris at the bottom of the harbor" interrupted Wen

The blue peacock stared at him with his mouth and eyes wide opened

"Three of them, you say?"

"Yes, sir" nodded the snake "I already instructed your men to move them to an abandoned barn so we can study them away from curious eyes, although I'd like to ask you to wait until tomorrow, I'd really like to have some decent sleep tonight"

The blue peacock was barely listening to him

"What? Yes! Yes, of course, you may leave now, Wen"

The snake made a reverence and left the room.

Lord Qiao leaned his face in his hands for some minutes and then his shoulders rocked, it was silent at the beginning, but he soon gave himself into a burst of laughing. He stood up, still laughing.

"Well well, dear cousin, looks like that twisted white brain of yours had some use after all"

He walked to a showcase that contained a long white object. He opened it and carefully took the light object. He raised it high so he could give it a good look. It was a white feather, it's length exceeded one and a half meter and near the tip it had a mark that resembled a red eye.

The blue peafowl began to walk up and down the room fanning himself with the white feather, all his weariness had been replaced by excitement.

He had known the white peacock since he (Qiao) was ten years old and his cousin four, and he had hated the heir of Gongmen form the first time he saw him. He soon discovered that the feeling was mutual. Their fierce rivalry had only gotten worse when they were sent with a kung fu master to learn the traditional peafowl martial art. His blood even at the present day continued to boil whenever he remembered Shen, the "little ghost" as he liked to call him in his mind, surpass him, win the master's favor and receive the Yín yè spear as a symbol of his skill. The blue peacock growled and then smirked.

But he was _dead_, he had been killed by his own weapon, the weapon that according to witnesses had demolished the Tower of the Sacred Flame in less than five minutes. _That weapon_, was now about to become his, once he had figured out how it worked and how to build it. Wen would analyze it and soon he would have the power to defeat his enemies, and he would _use it. _Oh, he was already looking forward to it. His home, devastated by the harsh weather of the north and the merciless hammer of war, would know no fear, his enemies would be destroyed, their nations would be subject to his will, he would conquer all of the northern province, and then the rest of China... And after that, _the world_...

"Lord Qiao?" asked a quiet voice, startling the peacock, who quickly turned around to face the old goat standing in the doorway and gave a relieved exhalation.

"Good evening, soothsayer" he bowed his head, and she mimicked him.

"Remembering old times, I assume?" said the goat, with her eyes fixed on the white feather held by a blue wing.

"Ah, this... Ehhh... I was just..." mumbled Qiao, but she didn't allow him to continue:

"I understand your men made quite an interesting discovery in the harbor" her eyes where still on the white feather, slightly narrowed.

That goat made him nervous, she had been one of the closest ones to Lord Shen, and now he was insulting the last remainder of his memory. Qiao wanted to put the white feather back in the showcase but he didn't dare. He remembered her commentary and cleared his throat.

"Ehem... Well, the thing is..." Why was he so nervous? She was an elder! A commoner! She had no authority over him!

"My lord" She finally took her eyes off Shen's feather an looked at his face... It was not an improvement "I would like to give you a little advice"

"P- Please! Go ahead"

"The weapon that lord Shen created, such a destructive and cruel device, should not be allowed to see this world again" So she knew about it. Of course, it was to be expected from a soothsayer "It's ability to destroy is not only limited to buildings and boats. Such a terrible power will end up destroying the one who attempts to own or use it, like it did the first time"

Lord Qiao felt a chill running through his back, that was no advice, it was a warning. The light in the room seemed to have decreased and the shadows had taken long, menacing shapes. He felt that he was missing air, he couldn't move, he staggered and thought he was going to faint, but suddenly the spell was over, and he gave a relieved sigh.

"Do not fear, soothsayer, because I have no intention of using such an evil invention"

"Very well, then, so you will order the three cannons your soldiers have finished moving right... Now. To be cast back into pots and pans" said the bearded lady. Qiao opened his mouth but he couldn't answer, she could read him like an open scroll. She nodded at his bewilderment.

"My lord, could I have one of your feathers?"

"What?" He stepped away from her

"A feather, my lord, I believe you will find this quite helpful in the future"

He stared at her for a few seconds and then plucked out one of his neck feathers and handed it to the soothsayer. She took the blue object and extracted an old bowl of her bag. She placed it on the ground and put the feather into it.

"What are you..." asked Qiao, half curious and half apprehensive.

"The future is not, as most people believe, a neat road which we follow calmly and safely to get from one place to another" Said the goat "You should think of it as a narrow, dirty and neglected trail, full of traps, detours and crossroads"

"Why are you telling me...?" Tried to ask the lord, but he was once again interrupted.

"Because you are now in front of one of those crossroads, Lord Qiao, you have to choose which trail you are going to follow. I have the ability to make an accurate prediction of the outcome of events that your choice will unleash" The soothsayer grabbed a handful of white dust of a small flask of he bag and dropped it into the bowl. A cloud of bright colored smoke rose from it and the room darkened.

"This, my lord is what is going to happen if you make the wrong choice..."

Qiao looked at the smoke as it turned blue and adopted the shape of a peacock, he realized that he was staring at himself.

"_The one who attempts to dominate the steel dragon..." _recited the soothsayer with a grave voice "_... will discover that it only has one master..._" The blue peacock was petrified, his hands were shaking, he couldn't look away from the smoke figure.

"_... the one who tries to tame the steel dragon will have his soul destroyed..." _The smoke peacock blurred "_... by the only master of the dragon, the one who conceived it and brought it to this world, the one who has escaped death and has always worn it's mark..." _the smoke peacock figure collapsed into an agitated twister of blue smoke. Both the soothsayer's eyes and Qiao's widened, as she pronounced the last part of the prophecy

"_... he will return to claim his creation and will bring death and ruin upon the one who dared to defy..."_

Her heartbeat was rumbling in her ears. The smoke turned bright red and a new figure appeared; a large red circle, containing a smaller black one.

"_...The White Emperor"_

The soothsayer saw the peacock's horrified expression under the crimson glow. A moment later the smoke dissipated and the she leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. She must have made a mistake, it was not possible...

Lord Qiao was frozen, the words of the goat were still lingering in his mind: _the white emperor... the only master... will destroy his soul..._ Then he slowly looked down, at the object he had been holding and unconsciously stretching and twisting. The red eye at the tip of the feather was exactly like the one that had appeared in the smoke, and it looked as if it was staring right at him.


	2. Die hard

The white emperor

Chapter II – Die hard

"But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated"  
>Ernest Hemingway<p>

"He... He is... alive?" Lord Qiao could finally ask. The soothsayer was covering her mouth with her hooves and looked shocked, she didn't answer.

"He cannot be!" yelled the Lord "Your foretelling gifts are flawed, soothsayer"

"I assure you that not even one of my predictions has been mistaken" replied the goat, recovering from her astonishment "every one I've ever made has come to pass, and you can be certain that this one will do as well"

"But he's dead! My cousin is dead!" claimed the peacock.

He walked to the showcase and placed the white feather in it's original position, when he turned back to the soothsayer he saw that she had picked up her bowl and was about to leave the office. With every second he grew more convinced of the prophecy's absurdity and he felt his self assurance returning, and finally he gave a laugh.

"It's impossible. And you know it"

The soothsayer had her back turned on him, and without turning around, she simply replied

"You are not the first one to say that, Lord Qiao". Then she left, leaving the blue peacock alone in his studio.

* * *

><p><em>Three weeks ago<em>

The white peacock was laying on his knees in front of his destroyed armada, the wrecked cannon was lying over him, barely sustained by the ropes of the broken gear. And the damn panda was standing behind him, and he didn't stop _talking_. The impotence that had filled lord Shen's chest was being replaced by another emotion: _Wrath_.

"You're right" he said after the panda was done talking "then I choose... THIS!"

He pulled three knifes out of his sleeve and attempted to stab the dragon warrior with them; the panda managed to dodge all of his strikes and grabbed his wing to trow him to the boat's stern. Shen gave a rage scream and slashed at his face, the bear left go of his arm and he threw all of his knifes at him as hard as he could. But he was so enraged that most of his projectiles missed the (rather large) target. The bird couldn't think, he had been driven into a blood thirsty frenzy and he could only see the panda. He lunged at him, grabbing his spear, which was nailed to the board, and attempted to impale him with it. He was so lost in his anger that he didn't realize that he was cutting the ropes that held the cannon in it's place until it was to late. As the panda fled the boat, he turned his head to see the heavy artifact falling down on him and he closed his eyes, submitting himself to his fate.

Shen felt the large metallic object crushing his bones and burning his feathers; the wooden floor of the deck collapsed and he was thrown violently inside the ship. He hit his back against the inner side of the hull with such strength that he went through it, breaking some ribs in the process.

He was now sinking in the harbor, his wet feathers and robe were pulling him to the bottom, life was slipping out of him trough his numerous wounds and his lungs were filling with water. As he was dragged away by the stream, he closed his eyes and gave in to the darkness...

… When he opened them he was floating in a pitch black world. He raised his wing in front of his face and was able to perfectly see his white feathers, despite the lack of light. He was dirty and soaked, and he was still wearing his once fancy silk robe. But the pain was gone, he could freely move all of his limbs.

At that moment Lord Shen realized that he was dead. His breath turned fast and shallow and he gave nervous glares to the surroundings, as panic invaded him. He flapped, in a desperate attempt to escape, but he didn't move; or if he did, he didn't noticed it. He tried to scream but he didn't hear his voice...

He was in hell, it had to be... He had been so close to fulfilling his ambitions, and now he was dead... It was over... If only he had been more cautious with the spear, if only he had executed the Furious Five and the panda when he was given the chance, if only he had listened to the soothsayer, if only he hadn't destroyed the village... Every mistake he made in life came back to him; they were going to be his only company for the rest of the eternity...

Suddenly, a bright white light lit in front of him. He raised his wing to touch it, and he felt like if an invisible fist had hit his chest; and then it happened again, and again. Shen couldn't see his attacker, and now he felt that someone was grabbing his beak and a rancid taste flooded his mouth. At that moment the light faded and Shen woke up in a rush of violent coughs, each one accompanying a bit of the river that was leaving his lungs. He was dazzled by the midday sun, and when he tried to get up, an excruciating pain came from every cell of his body. He screamed and laid back down in the floor. The last thing he saw was a dark figure blocking the sun, it was a canine, maybe a dog or a fox... No... It was bigger... A wolf...

The next time he woke up, he saw a stone roof; he was lying down in what felt like a makeshift bed. He tried to sit up, with every muscle of his body aching, although not as bad as before. He noticed that his right wing was immobilized by a splint, that and the stabbing pain of broken ribs he felt every time he breathed indicated that he had sustained several bone fractures, although not nearly as much as he would expect. A quick glance confirmed that he was at a cave, the so called bed was a bunch of blankets piled at the bottom of the cave. He tried to stand up, and a furry hand grabbed his shoulder and forced him to lay down.

Lord Shen looked at the stranger and saw it was a wolf, a young female, she couldn't be older than twenty five, and yet, her uncovered arms showed many scars. He wondered if she was a warrior; despite of her markings, she had a lighter complexion than the rest of the wolves, even for a female, her shoulders and arms were not nearly as bulky as his minion's were.

The thought of his wolf army reminded him of his crushing defeat. He mumbled something to himself, looking to nowhere. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't notice that she was talking to him until she touched his forearm.

Normally, any commoner who dared touching him without his permission would have it's hand cut off, if he or she was lucky. But Shen was so indifferent that he didn't even bothered yelling at her; he simply looked at her dark eyes.

"Lord Shen...?" she asked cautiously "How are you feeling, sir?"

He didn't answer, just looked back at the roof and sighed.

"Sir...?" she insisted.

"I'm fine" he answered reluctantly.

His usual him would be sieging this wolf with questions; who was she, where were they and how had they got there, what had happened... But now he was drained of feelings, nothing mattered to him anymore. He was a failure, he had always been, since the moment he had hatched; he had never achieved something of importance and now he would have to live with that, since it looked that he had failed even at dying.

The she-wolf was asking him if he felt any pain or if he was hungry; gods, she was so annoying. Why was she humiliating him even more? Taking care of him as if he was a a weak sickly chick again. If he had had a knife he would have silenced her forever... No, he would have used it to cut his throat open, so he could finally get out of his misery and leave that pitiful existence.

The wolf interpreted his silence like he wanted to be left alone and headed for her part of the cave; but before she was too far lord Shen spoke.

"How long have I been unconscious?" She looked back at him; he was still looking at the roof.

"Almost a week, sir" she answered, hoping that he would say something else, but he simply closed his eyes and whispered.

"A week... I see..." And he said nothing else

Lord Shen spent the days following depressingly looking at the void, he was reluctant to eat whatever the wolf gave him, although she eventually managed to make him eat a little of rice. She asked a lot of questions, most of which he ignored; and she talked a lot. From her endless chatter the peacock learned that she was a member of his army, and she had been hurt during the battle at the factory, which explained why she hadn't been present at the harbor during the battle. Upon hearing of his defeat, the remnants of his army had fled the city and were now a bunch of unorganized groups lurking the countryside. She was en route to the Qing province when she found him lying in the coast and they where now hiding in a cave a few miles north of Gongmen, which was slowly declining and turning into a rat's nest.

Shen didn't reacted to this torrent of news, he no longer cared about his home city, neither he cared about China and his conquest ambitions, which seemed pointless. However, the wolf kept staring at him whenever she revealed one of this facts, as if expecting him to do something; but the peacock had abandoned all his ambitions, his dreams, his authority; even his scornful attitude had been replaced by the utmost indifference. She was starting to believe that he no longer had the will to live.

She was really alarmed when lord Shen attempted to walk for the first time; after he stood up, he stretched his neck, legs and his good wing and fanned his tail. He immediately sensed something odd about it and when he twisted his neck to look at his tail he saw that the two longer sets of feathers were missing, probably trapped by the cannon and ripped out; leaving his tail at only a third of it's full length. She knew that the peacocks where very touchy with their trains, and lord Shen was _specially_ touchy about his. She braced herself for his reaction, which, knowing him, would be painful for the nearest individual; but he just mumbled "Oh...", and kept walking, leaning on her.

Several days after his awakening, the wolf (whose name he hadn't bothered to ask yet) returned from one of her incursions for supplies into the city with the news that his cousin had taken control of it, and it was now swarming with boar soldiers.

"Is that so..." asked Shen, at first the wolf thought he would (not) react as usual, but for the first time, he looked at her, actually _seeing_ her and asked "What about the master's council?"

There was actual interest in his question, and the wolf felt so relieved that he was finally coming out of his torpor that she almost forgot to reply.

"It was dissolved after... Well... After that, sir" she feared that he would fall back into depression after her mention of the battle, so she tried to distract him by quickly adding "They say master Croc returned to the islands and master Ox left to the mountain on a pilgrimage for life"

"I see..." said Shen, lifting his head like he did when he was thinking.

"What are you going to do about it, sir?" asked the wolf with cautious eager.

What was he going to do... Shen surprised himself considering the wolf's words, and a quick stream of thoughts rushed trough his mind...

The kung fu masters had abandoned the city when it needed them the most, all of them, then the citizens' faith in kung fu was probably weakened, and they had experienced what was it to be without government... And there was also his cousin... _Qiao_.

He never had the chance to completely humiliate that cocky blue brute. Yes, it was true that he had been given the Yín yè spear, but he had always wanted his cousin to fall before him once more... And now he had taken _his_ city...

The wolf was talking again, although Shen was not paying attention; she was saying something about regrouping the wolves and taking the city.

Yes... If he managed to assassinate Qiao... The boars were mercenaries, their loyalty was for the highest bidder, if his cousin died, they would serve him. The city would be his once again, and he would also have an army. The fleet could be rebuilt, the cannons repaired; he could resume his conquest plans from exactly where he left them...

"What for?" he asked out loud, interrupting the wolf's speech

"Excuse me?" she asked

"What for?" repeated Shen "Why would I want to take back the city? "

His words left her speechless for a moment

"Well... What about your plans?" she asked "The conquest of China and all that... What about all your work... _Our_ work for the past years?"

She had been under Shen's authority since her birth, all her life he had worked along with her pack to fulfill the peacock's goal. So big was her loyalty towards him that she had risked her life staying there to look after him; and now he was just _quitting_.

"What about it?" he asked back "So what if I managed to take the city and conquer China? What next?"

"..."

"You've never before thought about it, have you?" continued Shen. Seeing that she wouldn't answer, he added "Well, you know what? Neither did I! And look how I ended!"

Now there were tears in her eyes, and Shen surprised himself by lowering his tone.

"Look..." He remembered that he didn't knew her name.

"Jian" she said with an affected voice "my name is Jian"

"Well... Jian, you may have not noticed it but I'm a fiasco. I mean... I lost my whole armada to one man, I was nearly killed, I am an outcast. If you had any sense you would leave me here before they found you..." Suddenly, she ran away before he could say anything else. That night, he was bothered by the woman's sobs that filled the cave until past midnight.

Shen was not expecting her to stay with him much longer after his rant, but she never expressed his will to leave. She was less talkative now, though, she seemed to be offended and was acting cold and distant.

She used to tell him about everything she saw during her incursions to the city (how did she managed go remain unseen during said trips was a mystery for the peacock), now, he only told him the most important things: lord Qiao was expelling all the criminals, lord Qiao was re opening the trade arrangements with the surrounding territories, lord Qiao was planing to unite the province with the province of Yan. The news kept coming with monotony, until...

"Lord Qiao has sent several search parties to the factory and is hiring divers to register the harbor" informed Jian upon her return.

Shen's head raised so quickly he hurt his neck

"What?"

"Search parties, I think he wants to retrieve some of the metal"

Of course! He should have foreseen it! He knew his cousin, he knew that he couldn't just let go the chance of getting his hands on such a powerful invention. His eyes narrowed; _his_ powerful invention.

He didn't care for the city, but this... This was beyond an ordinary insult, it could not be tolerated.

"Jian!" he called. She was outside the cave, making a campfire, but rushed inside when she heard him.

"What is it, sir?"

"There's something I need you to do"

* * *

><p>Although he was convinced that the soothsayer was mistaken, lord Qiao had ordered his troops into an enhanced state of alert and informed them to notice him of every wolf sighting. He had also increased the garrison on the palace, and had designated the elite warriors as his and his family's bodyguards. Shu was not particularly happy about it.<p>

Wen had been exonerated of all his duties and ordered to focus on analyzing the cannons; for the time being he hadn't made a relevant progress...

He hadn't seen the soothsayer since the time in the office and was informed that she had been locked at her chambers for most of the past days, steadily looking into her bowl...

Lord Qiao's unease grew bigger during the following days, despite his skepticism.

"It's impossible" he used to mumble to himself whenever the prophecy's words jumped into his mind...

* * *

><p>"I have it, sir" said Jian, meeting Shen at the entrance of the cave, it was past midnight and the peacock had been anxiously waiting for her walking in circles around the fire.<p>

"Good, did anyone see you?" he asked, grabbing the wooden box she offered him, his wing had healed a few days ago.

"No, sir, I'm sure of it"

"Perfect" he said, placing the box in the ground and kneeling in front of it. It was finely crafted and had Shen's emblem carved at the top.

He carefully opened it using the tips of his wings, and smiled for the first time in many days when he saw what was inside.

Jian watched him take out a long object from the container and raise it to have a good look at it. It reflected the moonlight, which gave it a silver glow; it was a long curve bladed sword. When she watched inside the box she saw it also contained several feather shaped knifes and a new par of metal talons. Shen had dispatched the ones he was wearing during the battle because they were broken and rusty.

Lord Shen practiced a few moves with his sword to test himself and then looked at her, with a grin on his beak.

"I think I should pay my dear cousin a visit"


	3. Messages

The white emperor

Chapter III - Messages

"Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life"  
>Lord Byron<p>Since the moment she had formulated the prophecy, the soothsayer's mind had been boiling with questions. Right after leaving Qiao's office she had locked herself in her chamber and had started looking into her bowl. She hadn't stopped for eating or sleeping, there were too many interrogatives that were requesting an answer. It had almost passed a day and a half when she finally fell asleep over the table.<p>

Maybe it was all the colored smoke she had inhaled, or maybe it was a consequence of the many hours she had spent peeking into the future that made her dream about it...

Her mother, her mentor had once warned her about the dangers of excessively looking forward into the time line (or time net, as she called it). By knowing every possible outcome of events, you risked being trapped by the future, living enslaved by it, only thinking about it.

It was like reading the last chapter of a book before reading the first one... The reader would not be able to read the story without constantly remembering it's end. This was what was happening to the old goat. She had looked to much and now her thoughts were bound to the future; even in her sleep it continued to reveal itself to her. Every event she foresaw increased her sorrow.

She woke up knowing every possible outcome, and with all of her doubts clarified. She knew what she had to do; she also knew that she was now a slave of the future, and that she would be until the end of her days. She had been in front of a crossroad, and had taken the trail that led to her doom...

Mustering all the paper she could find, she casted the bowl aside, sat in front of the table and began to write.

* * *

><p>Her stay in Gongmen had been monotone and boring, however, now it had turned into plain imprisonment! Shu could understand her parent's reluctance to let her into the city, but <em>this!<em> Now she couldn't go anywhere without the lovely company of at least two bulky boars. She couldn't go to the bathroom without having those men waiting behind the door, and only her scariest look had persuaded her father to make them stand watch _outside_ her chamber. And on top of that she was left completely alone: Her mother had left the city to take care of some bandit problem in the countryside, her father was so busy with the city that she hardly ever saw him, and when she did, he was distracted an nervous, he even seemed fearful; the new city must had made him paranoid; even Wen was absent, he spent all the day at the city, and whenever she would asking something, he would act as distant as her father

Shu was seventeen years old and wasn't a child anymore, she was fairly independent an self sufficient, but it wasn't like if she was enjoying the complete isolation.

* * *

><p>"Alright, I think it's ready from a few tests" echoed Wen's voice from inside the cannon. After the snake had slithered out of the metal tube, a boar soldier introduced a paper bag full of gunpowder and an iron sphere in it, and then pushed it to the bottom with a long stick. Wen climbed on top of the weapon and stood near the fuse; another boar handed him a flaming torch and he grabbed it with with his tail.<p>

"Very well, everybody, we are about to test the second cannon, clear the blast zone and cover your ears" warned the snake, and lit the fuse.

A few seconds later, they heard a loud explosion and a squeak of strained metal, the cannon shook and was propelled back as a dense cloud of black smoke emerged from it's nose and covered everyone. Wen came out coughing from the haystack he had been thrown into.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked, raising his voice over the cacophony of coughs and whining. A lot of voices answered "yes".

The snake went near the cannon to inspect the results of the test. After the smoke had cleared, he saw the projectile lying in front of the still smoking mouth of the cannon and cursed in his mind; they hadn't yet achieved an actual shot and were giving turtle steps at studying the weapon's design and learning how it worked. Wen had seen many artifacts that used gunpowder, it had a great and yet unexplored potential, specially for weaponry... Grenades were a good example of it, and they where also one of Shen's inventions. He leaned against his desk and looked at the plans and sketches scattered over it. There was something he was missing... What was it, he thought with growing frustration and firmly closed his eyes, keeping the schemes in his mind, trying to see beyond the drawings.

"Any progress?" he opened his eyes and saw lord Qiao standing next to him.

"Good morning, sir" said Wen, making a head inclination, which the peacock mimicked.

"So... How are you doing?" asked the lord; the snake sighed before answering

"We're moving slow but steadily" and added "Would you like me to tell you my findings?"

"Please"

"Very well, follow me" They walked towards another of the cannons, at the bottom of the barn. Apart from them and the group of boars, there was no one else in the building. Wen had been clever by choosing it, as it was in a field far away from the civilian buildings and the main roads, where the explosions would not be heard.

"It's working is quite simple" began the snake, climbing to the top of the device "when the gunpowder lights, all the strength from the explosion must go trough the channel, pushing the projectile in the process..."

"I understand"

"We have encountered several difficulties at making them work" and he enumerated "First of all it is the projectile's material, shape and size. If it is too big, the explosion is most likely to go out trough the fuse orifice, breaking it in the process; and if it is too small, it won't go out with enough speed..."

"And what about the material?" asked Qiao

"If the metal is too frail it is most likely to be shattered by the explosion, and the harder alloys are too heavy and hard to manipulate, let alone shaping them into spheres" the peacock nodded to make clear that he understood.

"There is also a problem with the gunpowder... The ordinary one, the one used in fireworks, doesn't generate sufficient strength to move the projectiles; Lord Shen's must have had a different composition..."

Qiao frowned at the mention of his cousin

"... I'm experimenting with other mixtures, but it will take time" added Wen.

"Is that it?" asked the peacock.

"It is... For the moment" answered the snake.

"Very well, you have done a good job, Wen" said Qiao, and seeing that the reptile was at a dangerous level of restlessness, he added "You should return to the palace and get some sleep"

"Thank you very much, sir, I will do so". The peafowl and the snake left the barn and headed back to the city.

* * *

><p>From the window in his office, Qiao spotted a lonely figure standing in the middle of the garden. He peered at the window to see better and saw that it was Shu, just standing there, without her guards.<p>

He realized what she was doing when he saw the object in the peahen's hand...

When she was a little chick her parents had wanted her to learn to defend herself, _just in case_. An army of instructors had been summoned to the palace to provide her advanced training of the county's deadliest martial arts. The peafowls were not gifted at unarmed combat, and it was soon proven that she wouldn't be an exception, however, it turned out that she was not gifted at armed combat either: she couldn't aim the spears, maces and hammers were too heavy for her (as for the rest of her kind), the dao escaped her grip whenever it made contact with her master's sword. She had superbly mastered the bow, but the close ranged abilities were ironically out of her reach.

And when everybody was about to give up on her; she discovered the jian, an old type of sword, unlike the dao, this one was straight and double edged, and it required more advanced training than the saber. Everyone had advised her to desist, as none of them believed that she would be able to achieve much; but she had persevered, spent days and nights restlessly practicing the movements and the techniques her teachers had shown her (without much faith), desperately trying to surpass her parent's expectations, and she had achieved it...

Having nothing to do and wanting to prove her silent bodyguards that she was no weakling, she had decided to go out and practice her Choy Li Fat techniques, a little to vent her frustration and a little to show those two boars that they weren't needed.

Standing in the middle of the garden, she unsheathed her sword. It was an ancient relic from her mother's family; described in the old record scrolls as the "sword of wisdom", and it was of common belief that it had belonged to the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. Of course she didn't believed in such stories, but she still recognized that it was one of the finest weapons in the entire country: the blade was made of dark gray steel, of about twenty seven inches long and one inch width, on both sides it had carved a series of age worn characters of a forgotten language, and it was so sharp that it could effortlessly cut trough the thickest bamboo; the hilt was adorned by a ying yang made of black jade and ivory; It had belonged to her ancestors as far as it could be tracked trough history.

Shu began striking the air with such speed that it made the blade whistle; the boars watched her from the verge of the garden without talking at all, but they were impressed. The young peahen moved so fast that they could barely keep up with her attacks; now she was blocking an imaginary attack, now she has lunging forward, extending her wing so that she would have stabbed an enemy that was two meters away; now she launched a back kick, now she jumped and twisted in mid air to slash a neck on one side and kick a face on the other. She had made her own variation of the standard techniques to include the wooden sheath as a staff, which she held in her left hand and used to hit the adversary. Those were the results of almost eleven years of training...

"Impressive, dear" she turned to find her father proudly looking at her. She decided that it was too soon to stop acting offended, so she didn't answered and continued to practice. Qiao watched her do so with an amused smirk; she had been watching her for ten minutes before deciding that it was time, for once, to put his daughter before his work, just to repair part of the damage he was doing to her...

"When was the last time we sparred together?" he asked. She kept attacking the air, ignoring him.

"More than five years I believe..." he continued.

Silence...

"Do you remember? You were so little you had to use both wings to lift the sword" he teased, Shu's eyes narrowed "Such a cute little chick you were..."

"Alright! That's it!" Said the peahen, sheathing her blade and pointing at her father with it "I'll show you who the little chick is, old man!"

Said this, she tossed the weapon to one of the boars and went to the shelf at the corner of the yard. She returned carrying three wooden swords, threw one at her father, who hadn't moved from the original spot and caught it on mid air, then he took a fighting stand, raising the sword in front of him and hiding his free hand in his back. Shu mimicked him, holding two swords.

"As I recall..." he said teasingly "... The last time you lasted almost a minute, do you think you'll be able to beat your mark" and he laughed, closing his eyes; and at that moment, she stroke.

The peahen lunged forward and made an arch movement with one of the blades, hoping to catch her father off guard. Qiao was surprised, stopped laughing and managed to block her attack; but before he could counter it, she unleashed a series of strokes with her two swords, which he blocked as he stepped back; each collision of the blades made a sound that echoed over the garden.

Shu stopped to see his reaction and was glad to see that he was panting.

"I see you have improved..." said the peacock "... Those are some strong attacks, but how do you defend?" and he attacked with lighting speed. He had been holding himself to evaluate her skill, and had decided that it was time to increase one level. A new seres of shocks echoed, much faster than the first one; lord Qiao had turned into a blue blur and now it was Shu's turn to step back and pant. They stopped with their swords locked above their heads; Shu was breathing hardly by her mouth and her head was lowered.

Qiao decided it was enough.

"You did it well, Shu, I'm impressed... But it's over" immediately after saying this, he turned around, still keeping their swords locked, and before Shu could guess what he was doing, she was tripped by his train and lifted in the air. Qiao turned around hoping to see her in the ground, but instead, he received a kick to the chest that threw him back; Shu had managed to recover her stance while still in the air and had taken advantage of his temporary weakness. She fell on her feet and rushed towards him before he could recover; with a strong hit she disarmed him, ripping the sword from his hand.

The blue peacock found a wooden sword pointing at his beak and was rendered speechless for a brief instant; then he burst into laugher and bowed to his child.

"Very well, my daughter!" she lowered her swords "You have defeated me, I'm proud of you"

A wide smile formed in her beak, the first one in many days, as she bowed back at him; she was the second person that had defeated him in his entire life. For the first time in _years_, the lord and his daughter were actually spending some time together; after sparing they went for a walk in the palace's surrounding grounds, without the bodyguards, talking to each other. They were laughing of one of Shu's jokes when she dared to bring in the subject that bothered her.

"Listen... Dad... About the bodyguards..." Qiao guessed where she was going, maybe he was being a little paranoid, after all, the goat's words where a bunch of nonsense, only believable for the ignorant mob and his superstitious uncles. There was no reason for him to be scared, he was behaving like a child...

"I don't think you'll be needing them anymore"

"Really? Thank you so much, Dad!" she hugged him, and then she cautiously added "... And... About the city..."

"Ah! Yes... The city... Well, we will go next week, I promise" her hug tightened

"Promise?" she asked

"Promise"

"Thank you very much! I love yo..." she interrupted herself "... Oh, looks like duty is about to knock your door"

He turned around and saw a group of boars walking towards him

"I'll let you take care of it then" said Shu in a playful tone, end headed back to the palace.

Qiao guessed something was wrong when he saw the soldiers' expression.

"What is it?" he demanded before they could say anything

"Something happened in the barn, mi lord" answered the boar "The guards we left there..."

"What happened to them?" asked the peacock nervously

"They're dead, sir. All of them; the group that was going to relieve them found them"

"Did you find any trace of the attackers? Are the weapons alright?" asked Qiao, with a note of panic in his voice.

"The weapons were left untouched, sir..." informed the boar "... We only found this" said the boar and handed him a long object wrapped in paper. Qiao opened the package and when he saw what was inside he felt as if an icy hand was squishing his stomach.

It was a feather shaped knife...

* * *

><p>When he burst into the soothsayer's chamber he found the old goat leaning over her desk, writing on a sheet of paper. She hadn't interrupted her job after hearing the lord's entrance, she was expecting him, and talked before he could say anything.<p>

"Do you believe me now?"

"I know that you have done nothing but look at your bowl for the past days" he avoided the question "Is there a way to prevent the prophecy from happening?"

"I'm afraid your actions have already set it in motion, lord Qiao" answered the old lady "I have analyzed the possibilities and there is not much to do... Although..."

"What is it?" demanded the peacock, starting to loose his patience "Talk!"

The soothsayer turned around and gave him a severe look.

"Lord Shen somehow survived his battle with the dragon warrior and was aided by one of his few minions that remained loyal to him..." she began "... His defeat and the panda's ease to let go of his past made him realize of the futility of his life. For a short time he was convinced that his entire life was meaningless and sank in a void of melancholy and despair; this would have consuming him and ending with his life, but then you arrived, and claimed his throne and his inventions... You have given him a reason to live and the fire of his spirit has revived..."

"But what reason is that?"

She gave him an exasperated glance.

"You know him, Qiao, you know that he won't tolerate his creations to be used by other, _specially_ by you. Now he wants to punish you, his wounds are almost healed and he will soon be ready to strike at you; that is the message that he wishes to send you with the knife... Yes, I know about the knife"

The peacock gave a derogatory grin.

"Let him try" he hissed "He's injured, he doesn't have his weapons, or his army, and he's _weak_! If he tries to confront me I will crush him!"

"That would probably be the case..." said the soothsayer "But Shen learned something from the dragon warrior... That everything is possible, with inner peace... He's looking at it from the wrong angle though"

"What do you mean?"

"Inner peace is not a mean, it's an end; and failing to realize this is what is preventing him to reach it, just like what happened to the panda..."

"But the panda _did_ managed to reach inner peace, that was how he destroyed all of Shen's cannons" interrupted Qiao

"No, he, like Shen, lacks the wisdom to fully comprehend the concept; what he achieved was not enlightenment, but a state of extreme conscience of himself and his surroundings, which highly increased his perception and reflexes..." corrected the goat "_That_ was how he destroyed all of Shen's cannons and that is what the lord understands for inner peace... He has been training himself to reach that state and when he does it, he will come at you; and he is really close to it now..."

"Oh, gods!" panicked Qiao, breathing heavily

"Relax, lord Qiao, you're not a coward" ordered the soothsayer

"I'm doomed" whispered the peacock "He's going to kill me"

"There is a way to save you, mi lord" calmly said the soothsayer; he looked at her, frozen "As you know, Lord Shen is completely unable to control his emotions; wrath, hatred and anguish have a great domain over his sense. Use them to break his concentration, that is your only chance to survive"

"How? What do I have to do?" the blue peacock was looking straight at her old eyes, aching to hear her answer. She waited a moment before sighing and giving him an answer that only managed to confuse him even more:

"Retribution, lord Qiao"

* * *

><p>The white peafowl was standing in front of the cave, listening to the sounds of nature and feeling the breeze on his feathers. He had ordered Jian to go to the city in order to get some time alone to meditate.<p>

He slowly exhaled and closed his eyes, then slid the curved blade out of his loose sleeve and raised it in front of his face. His foot felt a peddle and he grabbed it; he took a few deep breaths, mentally counted to three and threw the stone up...

Without delay he opened his eyes and started brandishing the blade, mentally counting the hits and picturing the trajectory of the rock...

_six, seven, eight, nine_... the peddle had reached it's top height and started to fall... _sixteen, eighteen, nineteen, TWENTY_... the peddle was gaining speed, and when it was about to hit Shen's head, the peacock aimed his sword to the sky, just in time to receive the falling stone with the side of his blade, twenty four hits, that was a new record...

Upon feeling the impact, the bird began to rapidly swing the weapon, feeling the peddle going from the tip to the base and turning around whenever he twisted the sword. Finally, he held the sword still in an horizontal stand; the pebble was gracefully spinning in it's tip.

With a light twitch of his hand, the centrifugal force on the peddle to turn into kinetic energy, which caused the small object to fly off with the speed of an arrow and impact with the log of a large tree, producing a loud "Pac!".

Three leaves fell from the tree because of the impact and where intercepted by three knives halfway to the ground.

Lord Shen looked at the leaves nailed to the tree and a dark smile filled his beak.

He was ready...

* * *

><p>Retribution...<p>

The soothsayer's last word echoed in his mind, he understood the goat's idea. During the time that he and his cousin had spent together learning Cai Li Fo they had got to really know each other, and he had learned that if Shen suffered an offense, his mind would lock onto it until he had punished the offender...

But he was already trying to get revenge on him, was the soothsayer suggesting that he should turn his cousin against someone else? No... He had to wrong his cousin even further, awakening his wrath and hope it would make him commit a fatal mistake... But how?

Qiao was walking in circles inside his office. After sending a letter to his wife, asking her to return to the palace immediately, and informing her daughter that ten soldiers had been assigned to protect her (her reaction had been lovely), he had locked himself in the small room.

What could he possibly do to infuriate a man that had lost everything and had learned to mitigate his impulses? The soothsayer would know, she was the only being that truly understood him, the only one that he had ever loved...

His eyes widened. That was it! That was what she had tried to tell him!

No, it couldn't be... There was no way she... It was impossible...

* * *

><p>Shu was walking across the main hall with her eyes narrowed, and mentally cursing her father; how could it be that on one second he was all friendly, laughing with her and promising to take her to the city, and on the next one he was a tizzy, increasing her personal guard, ordering to carry her sword at all times and imposing a curfew. She was so angry that...<p>

"Could I have a word with you, princess?" the peahen looked around to see where the voice had came from, and then realized it was the old goat (bearded) lady that had greeted them to the city, she didn't knew her name, but everyone called her the "soothsayer".

"Of course, how can I help you?" she answered. One of her bodyguards tried to push the old lady away, but she hit his hand with her cane and answered as if nothing had happened.

"I would like you to have this" she handed her a bamboo tube that contained several paper scrolls. Shu extracted one of them and opened it. The old goat had written a series of illegible signs in it, the peahen recognized some of them as incomplete characters, but the "text" made no sense. Her first impression was that the old goat was senile, but the lady talked before she could return the strange gift.

"I'm sure that you cannot understand it for the moment but I would like you to keep it... You will be able to read it, in it's due time"

"Alright..." she said unsure if she should thank her, but the goat was already walking away. Before she could recover from the impression, the soothsayer called her:

"Oh, and dear! You might want to have your bow at hand for the next couple of days!"

That night, the soothsayer piled up the rest of the scrolls she had made and shoved them into another bamboo tube. She painted a black sun with six rays on it, Shen's emblem, and hid it under the table at the precise moment that lord Qiao entered the room.

"Good evening, mi lord" said the goat, without looking at him "Have you thought about my advice?"

"... Yes" he was standing right behind her; his voice sounded affected

"Good..." answered the goat "... In that case, let me tell you one last thing..."

His silence made it clear that he was listening.

"When you meet lord Shen, despite of all the precautions that you will take, your life will depend on the presence of your wife and daughter... _However_, if you let them watch the confrontation, they will see who you really are... It is up to you to choose if you want them to do so or not"

The soothsayer grabbed one last sheet and began to write inexistent characters on it, as she kept talking to him.

"If you order your men to conduct another search on the harbor, near the mouth of the river, you might find an interesting object..."

She finished writing and gently blew at the paper to make the ink dry faster. After this, she handed it to the peacock over her shoulder.

"Keep this with you until the beginning of the rain season, at that moment, give it to your daughter" after that she added with an exhausted sigh "That's all"

"Very well..." lord Qiao placed his wing on the goat's shoulder and she closed her eyes when she heard the low hissing of the blade slithering out of his sleeve.

The blue peacock raised his sword and pointed it at the back of her neck

"I'm sorry..." he whispered

"Lord Qiao..." her voice was broken... She was _crying_ "On a given moment you will have to decide if Shen lives or dies... Promise that... Promise that if possible... you will spare his life... you will spare my son's life..."

The peacock remained silent for a moment; his blades was less than an inch away from her scruff

"I promise" he lied, and then he stroke...


	4. Confrontation

**So, I want to thank FFcrazy and Jozs for reviewing the story, you guys are awesome!**

**Here's a little chapter four, I hope you guys like it, things are starting to heat up!**

* * *

><p>The white emperor<p>

Chapter IV – Confrontation

"Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate"  
>Sun Tzu<p>

Gongmen city had always been a safe and peaceful place, even in the poorest districts crimes were a rare thing, and now that they had taken care of the swarm of raiders, this reality had been restored. However... Lord Qiao had ordered his men to patrol the entrances of the city, and to report of any suspicious thing they saw. Of course they were supposed to protect the city, but this was just too much, thought the boar impatiently, as he returned to the outpost after his round.

"Hey, how long until the end of our shift?" he snapped at his partner, who was sitting on a bench inside the little hovel, sharpening his sword with a piece of flint.

"For the last time, our watch ends at dawn. Will you stop bothering me with the same question?" and then he pointed at the window, from which the clearing sky could be seen "Look, the sunrise should be in a few minutes, be quiet and leave me alone until we can get out of here"

"Fine..." answered the first guard and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed on his chest, watching the sparkles emerge from his partner's weapon, until he could no longer restrain himself and ranted "Why do we have to watch over this sad excuse for an outpost, I mean... It isn't like someone would try to enter the city from this access anyways. And what is he so scared of? He acts as if the city was under siege..."

"For the gods' sake, will you ever _shut up_?" exploded the other boar "I've spent the entire night only hearing at your whining! This is what we get paid to do, and I would like to do it without your voice constantly piercing my ears!" and before his partner could say anything he added "I think I heard a noise outside, go see if the other shift has arrived" his partner left the room with an offended look in his face.

After a few minutes, he sheathed his sword and went to see what was taking the other guard so long. But when he opened the door he faced a tall white figure, who looked at him with inexpressive red eyes.

The boar tried to grab his sword but before his hand could reach the weapon a silver shadow slipped under his chin. He took his hoof to his neck and then lifted it in front of his face, it was covered in blood. The guard's eyes turned white and he fell backwards.

"Even this little entrance is being watched" observed Jian, standing behind him "It's like if he knew..."

"He does know" calmly said Shen, cleaning the blood off his sword with a silk tissue "I made sure of it"

The wolf fixed him an incredulous look

"Otherwise it would have been too easy" explained the peacock, but that was not all. He enjoyed seeing the fear he had inspired in his rival, that was why he had left that knife in the barn, so that Qiao could know that he was alive, and that he was going after him. But if he had kept the soothsayer with him it was most likely that he already knew... Shen shook his head, casting the goat away from his thoughts.

The wolf was saying something.

"What do we do with the bodies, sir?"

"Leave them here"

"What? But they'll give the alarm when they find them!"

The peacock turned back at her and answered with an exasperated tone

"I am aware of that, and _that_ is the only purpose of this entire exercise"

The wolf looked at him, not understanding at all; how could this be the same person that saved his life and treated his injuries. He rolled his eyes.

"Look, let me worry about the guards, you worry about finding the others. We'll met at the Dōnggōng palace after the sunset" this she understood. She nodded and took the road to the fields. Shen watched her run away in all fours. Although she was naive and annoying at some times, Jian had proven to be useful and her loyalty to him could not be questioned. This was what had moved the lord to give her an important role in his plan.

The guard outpost was located at the northern edge of the city; it's purpose was to watch over an old road that led to the countryside and was mostly used by farmers that lived in the periphery. At this time of the day, the road and the streets were deserted. Lord Shen reached the first houses, he was about to officially return to Gongmen city.

With an agile jump he climbed to the top of one of the humble buildings. Without wasting time, he began to run across the roofs, going deeper into the city, gliding whenever he found a couple of buildings to far from each other to jump between them. He marveled at how easier it was to move and jump with a shorter train; if his tail had had it's normal length he would've had to make a pause to rest at this point.

The sun was already up when he decided to stop and climb to a small tower to learn his location. He had never been to this part of the city and he had gotten disorientated. He managed to reach the top of the building with ease; before leaving the cave, he had exchanged the straight claws of his metal talons for a set of shorter curved ones that resembled those of falcons and owls and were best for climbing.

Once he was high enough, he saw where the two palaces of Gongmen where (well, where one of them _used to be_, and cursed innerly when he saw that he was near the remains of the Tower of the Sacred Flame, which meant that he had deviated too much to the west and now he had to cross about two thirds of the city's total length.

He looked down and saw a group of four guards patrolling the street, they must had found the corpses in the outpost already. He would have to be more cautious now...

* * *

><p>After lord Shen's defeat, the wolves had lost their two principal command figures, and the ones that survived had hurried to leave the city before the angry mob or the kung fu warriors could find them, and although some of them had left to other provinces, the majority of the pack had been divided into small groups and had spread around the city's surroundings, setting small camps deep in the wilderness, subsisting by stealing from the crops and occasionally raiding merchant caravans.<p>

Part of Shen's plan consisted in regrouping the wandering soldiers to help him to retake the city (he still hadn't said anything about resuming the conquest of the world), and he had entrusted Jian with this task.

The young wolf had spent the morning searching the area in which one of the larger groups was said to be camping at. She had detected the scent of an old fire and some wolves and was following it, as it grew stronger by the minute. Finally, she spotted a group of tents near a small forest just a few meters away and rushed towards it... Only to discover a slaughter...

Dozens of dead wolves were spread between the tents, Jian was shocked at the sight of all those of her siblings dead. There were hoof markings amongst the paw prints, and she saw a pair of dead boars between the wolves; they must had gotten into a skirmish with lord Qiao's mercenaries. There were arrows nailed in the trees and in some of the corpses, but, when inspected, very few of the wolves presented large wounds like the ones that were inflicted by swords or spears; instead, most of then had small but precise cuts in their throats and the parts of their chests' that weren't protected by their armors.

Jian was wondering what sort of weapon had inflicted these wounds when she step on something hard, she kneeled to look at it and saw a strange metal object, it was a throwing knife; it was shorter and wider than Shen's blades, and it was shaped after a leaf, but it had the same markings that resembled a feather's filaments...

"Ouch!" said Jian, dropping the knife and sucking her injured thumb. She had only passed her finger trough the edge and it had given her a deep cut. Looking carefully she spotted some more blades like that scattered all over the floor. Weapons of such quality couldn't be afforded by anyone, and the skill they had been used with frightened her; there was a very powerful warrior serving lord Qiao.

She put the knife in a small leather bag tied to her belt to show it to Shen later and suddenly frost; there was someone standing behind her. She slowly stood up and quickly turned around, unsheathing her sword, to discover another several arrows and spears pointing at her...

* * *

><p>When lady Xiu crossed the west entrance of the city, followed by her retinue of bodyguards, she was received by her husband and daughter, along with a group of about sixty soldiers. Qiao looked tense and slightly relieved to see her. Shu, on the other side, had an annoyed expression in her face and wasn't looking at her father; she hadn't pictured her first trip to the city escorted by a crowd of frightened boars forming a safety perimeter around her and her paranoid dad, and why did they <em>both<em> had to cross the entire city just to greet her mother?

Xiu was as puzzled by this as her daughter

"What's the meaning of this, Qiao?" she asked

"Come with me, I'll explain you as we return to the palace" he answered. They headed down street, surrounded by the troupe of bodyguards.

"And what's the deal with all the guards?"

"We're leaving Gongmen" stated Qiao

"What?" asked both peahens at the same time, as they stopped walking

"Why?" asked Xiu severely, standing in front of her husband

"It isn't safe" he answered, and tried to resume the walking, but the peahen grabbed his shoulder and forced him to look at her

"Qiao, _what_ _is it_?" she asked in a dangerous tone. The blue peacock looked at her wife's beautiful brown eyes. In his message he had only asked her to immediately retreat to the city, and told that it was an urgent matter. Maybe it was time to explain himself...

"Shen is alive" Xiu's eyes opened wide and Shu asked

"You mean _lord_ Shen, the former ruler of this city? Wasn't he killed about a moth ago?"

"Are you sure of this?" asked Xiu, ignoring her daughter's question

"Yes"

"And the soothsayer didn't warned you about it? Let's go see her, maybe she can..."

"The soothsayer is dead" interrupted Qiao; his wife went speechless "She was assassinated in her chamber last night" he hadn't revealed this to Shu, who covered her beak with her wings.

"And this morning two guards were found dead in an outpost at the north edge of the city" added the peacock.

"So he's here!"

"I'm afraid so..."

* * *

><p>"Who attacked them?" asked Jian to the leader of the group. She had been found by a group of wolves; they had gone to the camp to search for survivors and to salvage as many supplies as they could find; they had agreed to take her to their own camp.<p>

"The peacock's men" answered the large black wolf "we think it happened about two days ago; when our scouts found the camp, the fires were still smoking. There is a large group of soldiers searching the countryside, they retreated to the city after sweeping the camp; and we're regrouping with the other groups to leave the province before they resume their hunting..."

"What? You're leaving but you can't..." jumped Jian

"Oh, yes we do, girl" answered the wolf with a bitter grin "And I suggest you to come with us"

"But we have to fight..."

"For what?" asked the wolf, brusquely turning to face her. The rest of the group kept moving "In case you haven't noticed, we're a little_ defeated_ at the present time, there's little more than one hundred, maybe one hundred and fifty of us left. And we have no leader! Alpha is dead and so is lord Shen, the only thing..."

"Lord Shen is alive" interrupted Jian, cutting his speech. The other wolves stopped walking and stared at the leader

"Nonsense" he answered "he was crushed to death by his own cannon"

"No, he wasn't, I found him in the river, he's alive and wants to take back the city, but he needs your help"

"And where is he now, if he isn't at the bottom of the harbor" sarcastically asked the wolf

"He went to the city, to deal with lord Qiao by himself" the black made a mocking sound

"Even if I believed you (which I don't, by the way), I would tell you this: First of all, you might remember that it's that peacock's fault that we're in this situation, so excuse me if my loyalty happens to be a little _diminished_ for the moment" Jian frowned at his response "Second; lord Qiao has surrounded himself with at least four hundred soldiers, Gongmen is crowded of them, there is little we could do to _retake_ the city. And third; Qiao has an incredibly powerful warrior protecting him, I know that Shen's good, but there is no way that he'll be able to battle the two of them at the same time, he'll get himself killed"

"What powerful master? Do you mean...?"

"The responsible of that beautiful display back there, yeah" completed the leader, and resumed his walk after adding "She's most likely to have returned to his side by now..."

* * *

><p>"We will board a ship that will take us to Qingzhou, from which we will continue to Yan" said Qiao, as they climbed the stairs towards the palace, followed by four guards (the rest of them had stayed back to watch the perimeter of the building) "they are loading it as we speak, it should be ready before dusk"<p>

The reason that that the loading took so long was because he had ordered his men to load one of the cannons in the ship's cargo bay, as he intended to continue to analyze it once they where back in Yanzhou.

The peacock stopped at the front door and looked at the two peahens, who wore identical worried expressions, he often found himself marveling at how much alike they where, and innerly cursed Shen and himself for making them endure this situation. With an exhausted sigh he crossed the wooden portal, followed by the two peahen and the four boars closing the march...

A white shadow dropped on the two guards that entered the hall in the last place, with his talons extended to break one neck with each of his feet, killing them almost instantly. The two remaining guards didn't had time to react before the shadow extended his wings, throwing a knife at both of them at the same time. Qiao turned around when he heard the lifeless bodies falling at the same time, and faced a pair of cold red eyes...

"Good afternoon, _cousin_" said Shen "It's been a long time, don't you think?"

Qiao protectively stood before the peahen, slowly stepping back as Shen walked towards them, with his wings lashed together and covered by his long sleeves, and a calm smile in his beak. The blue peacock noticed that he was wearing a simple white cloth robe, instead of the luxurious silk ones that he remembered his cousin loved.

"It has, indeed" he answered coldly, and before Shen could come any closer he gave a loud call, and in a few seconds a group of boars swarmed in the room from every door and four archers appeared an top of the stairs, aiming their arrows at Shen, who kept staring at Qiao.

"So you finally decided to show up, uh?"

"Well, I can't let you get away with something that's mine, do I?" asked the white peacock

"You lost Gongmen city... _Twice_" answered Qiao

"To hell with the city! That's not what I'm talking about" Xiu launched his husband a questioning look

"Ohhhh, were you keeping it a secret?" teasingly asked Shen "You see, I don't care what happens to the city, I was going to let you have it and just walk away. But I won't allow you to usurp my creation" He added, hardening his voice.

Qiao remembered what the soothsayer had told him: Shen was going to let himself die until he... He also remembered another of her predictions; that his life would depend on the company of his wife and daughter, but that would cost that thy would see him as he really was...

"Shu, leave" he ordered

"But..." she tried to reply

"You two, escort her to her chamber" he indicated to a pair of soldiers, who took a defensive formation as they pushed the princess out of the room. After they were gone he looked back at Shen.

"If you think you can come here and just talk to me like that you are very mistaken, _Shen_" he said "And I'll be glad to take you out of your mistake..." Shen burst into laughter

"A _cannon_ fell on me and I didn't died..." he said "Do you think I'm scared by your pitiful group of wild pigs?"

"I don't know how did escaped your deserved fate, Shen, but I'll make sure it doesn't happen again..." Qiao lifted his wing "... Kill him" he ordered.

The archers shoot at the same time and some of the boars lunged at Shen. The peacock waited until the last moment to dodge the arrows; he jumped and flapped his wings to gain more height, and when he was at the same level than the archers he threw a knife at each of them in a quick succession.

Now to the soldiers, Shen counted ten of them as he fell. Instead of landing in the stone floor, he did it on the shaft of a spear; and grabbing it with his talons he ripped it from it's owner's hooves. He grabbed the lance with his wings and made a wide circular movement swinging it over his head, two boars failed to dodge the weapon in time: six left.

He threw the lance as a javelin, impaling another soldier, and turned to dodge a sword that was aimed to his back, kicking it's owner in the face as he did so. As the soldier fell, covering his bloody face with his hooves, Shen grabbed his sword and used it to block another stockade. With a quick and agile hit at his opponent's sword he broke the soldier's defense and stabbed his exposed chest, leaving the sword pinned in his body. Three left.

Another soldier stood in front of him, raising a hammer. He turned around to trip him with his tail...

"What on earth happened to your train?" laughed Qiao. He had forgotten that his tail was shorter, and now he was going to pay for it with a crushed skull, he thought, seeing the hammer approach his head. He jumped back and the hammer crushed the tiling in the place he'd been standing less than a second ago. He ran and climbed on top of the heavy weapon before the boar could lift it and ran across the pole, nearing the brute's head and jumped, sinking his metal claws in his furry neck.

He jumped off the corpse before it hit the floor and while still in the air, he finished the last two guards with his knifes.

"Bravo!" said Qiao, clapping with his wings "I'm impressed, little Shen, master would be proud"

"Well, thank you" answered Shen, calmly as if nothing had happened "this is why the old man chose me over you"

"Ah! Yes, the Yín yè..." remembered the blue peacock, not falling to his incitement "He gave it to you, alleging that you were the strongest and the fittest to protect it... And yet, my men made quite an interesting discovery this morning at the harbor..." with a sign of his wing a boar approached his lord and handed him a large object wrapped in silk.

"... How can you explain _this_, Shen?" he asked, removing the silk and revealing the curved-bladed halberd. A wrathful expression took over Shen's face (so much for inner peace) and a knife left his wing, darting towards Qiao's face, but it was deflected by a silver flash when it was an inch away of it's target, producing a loud jingle.

The white peacock saw lady Xiu standing besides his husband and folding her wing to it's original position, fear had left her face which was now an emotionless mask. Her movement had been so slight and her reaction so fast that it almost seemed that his knife had been deflected by an invisible shield.

Qiao stepped forward, spinning the lance with the tip of his wing, he no longer feared Shen, he had sent his warriors ahead to check his skill, now he knew what he was facing.

"You think to high of yourself, Shen, when the truth is that you're not a big deal..." he threw the spear up "you are _weak_, little ghost, the old man has obviously overestimated you..." he grabbed the halberd in mid air and pointed at Shen with it "... And I'm going to prove it"

Shen drew his sword and lunged at him with lighting speed, much faster that when fighting the boars. Qiao managed to block all of his attacks and broke his sequence with a trip of his train. Remembering his fight with Shu, he lowered his head as much as he could while turning around, which saved his life: Shen had jumped to avoid the blue peacock's fan and had launched a kick to his neck, if Qiao hadn't dodged it his neck would have been sliced by Shen's claws.

Now it was the white peacock the one to defend himself, as Qiao brandished the halberd at him. Shen blocked one of the strikes and threw a knife at him before he could continue with his round. At such a short distance it was a sure-hit sure-kill shot, but the knife was once more blocked by one of Xiu's bolts. Her skill was shocking.

The two peacocks made a brief pause and started cycling each other.

"For how long are you going to rely on your wife?" teased Shen

"Your soothsayer advised me about the value of others" answered Qiao

"Really? So she's here, then" said Shen "Did she predicted your death?"

"No, she predicted _your_ death, actually" lied his cousin

"Yeah, she likes to say that a lot" smirked Shen "This will be the third time she's proven wrong"

And he attacked Qiao with renewed strength, as if he had been restraining himself until now, and the blue lord was being overwhelmed by his cousin's precise and strong attacks. This was demonstrated when one of Xiu's knifes had to prevent Shen's sword from beheading him.

"Wasn't _I_, the one supposed to die?" mocked the white peacock with a teasing smile "After I'm done with you the old goat is going to have to quit the soothsaying office"

"The soothsayer is dead, Shen" stated Qiao. His cousin froze and the smile slipped off his face.

This was it. His cousin skill was too much for him. His only hope was to upset him so much that he would loose his mind and hopefully commit a fatal mistake. That was what the soothsayer had sacrificed her life for. To throw Shen off his temper and give him a fighting chance. He would (hopefully) be able to defeat him, but Xiu would know what he had done...

"You are lying!" accused Shen, at least Shu wouldn't know...

He took a deep breath, looked at Shen, there was _horror_ in his red eyes. With a derogatory grin and feeling Xiu's eyes in the back of his head he said

"_I_ killed her..."

Shen looked at him for a brief instant, processing what he had just said, and then, with a cry, he blasted towards him.

Qiao took a defensive stance, waiting for his enraged cousin to come at him, if he managed to deflect the first strike, Shen would be so focused in killing him that he would present him a full opening...

When he was at less than a meter away from Qiao, Shen threw a knife (the last one he had), but he wasn't aiming at the blue peacock. Xiu was so focused in protecting her husband that she was caught off guard by Shen's attack. The peahen tried to dodge the flying knife but it still scratched her wing, giving her a deep cut. Now Qiao was on his own.

The white peacock stroke many times and with such speed that Qiao could barely keep up with him. The collisions of the two weapons produced a loud metallic patter.

And then it happened; Shen thrusted his sword forward and the blue peacock chose to dodge instead of blocking it, and he saw that his head was wide open!

The halberd went downwards, he would split his skull with a vertical slash, he saw his cold red eyes following the spear's trail and slowly close, accepting his superiority...

In less than a heartbeat Shen twisted his neck and the halberd passed less than an inch away from his face and he grabbed it with one wing, preventing Qiao from defending himself. He then closed one of his talons, forming a metal fist, and punched his cousin in the stomach with such strength that he was left out of air and dropped the spear. With his head lowered and panting to catch his breath, he saw Shen looking down on him with his eyes filled with wrath. Time seemed to had been slowed down.

The white peacock lifted his sword to strike the final blow. Xiu rose her wing to launch a knife, ignoring her wound, but it was too late...

Qiao braced himself to feel the cold steel slicing his neck, but suddenly, Shen stepped away from him with a pain scream. The white peacock looked at him, there was an arrow in his shoulder...

His wing wouldn't move. He dropped the sword and fell on his knees, he grabbed his shoulder and his white feathers turned red. Shen went numb as he watched how Qiao stood up, panting, grabbed the Yín yè spear and lunged at him. Qiao stroke his temple with the shaft of the spear and everything went dark...

* * *

><p>"You may be wondering why you're still alive..."<p>

Everything was blurred, he was lying in a dark cold room and his head ached worst than ever.

"... You see, there is something I want..." continued the voice

He spotted a blue figure. Blinking to clear his vision, he discovered that it was Qiao. He tried to stand up but a wave of burning pain arrived from his shoulder: the arrow was still there, although someone had bandaged him to stop the bleeding.

Qiao neared him and kneeled to be at his same level

"... I want to know everything about your weapon, Shen..." he said. Shen laughed, although it made his head hurt even more

"Why do you think I'm going to tell you anything about it?" he asked, now it was Qiao's turn to laugh

"In case you hadn't noticed, _little ghost_, you are in a little bit of trouble"

For the first time, Shen wondered where they were. It was a cell, probably in the palace's basement. It must be Qiao's work, because he didn't remembered that there was a prison in the Dōnggōng palace. Someone had taken his metal talons and he was chained to the wall.

"Do you know what happens with untreated wounds?" asked Qiao "They evolve into infections, for a few days the wound seems to be on fire as it slowly turns your blood into deadly poison... Of course that along with all this comes a high fever"

Shen guessed where he was going

"A normal peacock can endure almost a week, but you... I remember that time when we were training with master... I would say that you have a little less time" he gave him a wicked smile, which the white peacock answered with a look full of hatred.

"Now, don't give me that look" said Qiao standing up "I didn't forced you to come here, did I?"

"And what happens if I tell you what you want to know?" asked Shen

"I will have a doctor here to leave you as good as new, and then I'm going to publicly execute you" answered his cousin "Which I believe is your best option"

The white peacock narrowed his crest and narrowed his eyes at his response. His cousin exited the cell and a guard locked the door.

"Call me when you want to have that arrow looked at" said the blue peacock with a gloating smile

"Oh! And Shen" he said in a more serious tone

"What?"

"Don't be sad about the soothsayer" answered Qiao "She was willing to die so that I could defeat you"

And he left Shen alone with the guards.

* * *

><p><strong>So, what do you think about that?<strong>

**Chapter five will come along with a three-chapter interlude (Don't worry, It won't take long).**


	5. Not out of pity

The white emperor

Chapter V – Not out of pity

"Only those who spread treachery, fire, and death out of hatred for the prosperity of others are undeserving of pity"  
>Jose Marti<p>

"But we have to help him, Chao!" said Jian, on the brink of despair. The black wolf kept packing his belongings and didn't answered.

After finding the group, she had gone by her own to the Dōnggōng palace and had found it crowding with boars, no trace of the white peacock, and when she had howled, as they had agreed to do in case they didn't found each other, she hadn't received an answer. The wolf had then returned to their hideout, hoping to find him there, but the cave was empty and his scent was faint. The possibility that lord Shen had been caught struck her and placed a knot in the mouth of her stomach. The next morning she returned with the other wolves, just to find them lifting their camp and preparing for the journey. More wolves had joined them during the night, there over one hundred of them.

"He's been captured..."

"You don't know that" snapped Chao

"You're right" said Jian with a furious look "He must've just stayed to spend the night with his beloved _usurper_ cousin. Come on!"

The black wolf had finished packing, with his bag in his shoulder, he left the tent, and the young woman followed him. The camp was boiling with activity, the wolves were dismantling all the tents and putting off all the fires, they had stolen a wagon and were loading supplies in it.

"I'm sure that he's still alive, Qiao wants the weapon, if he gets it he will become invincible"

"That's one more reason for us to get the hell out of here" said Chao. Jian grabbed his shoulder and forced him to look at her.

"You're touching me" said the black wolf in a dangerous tone, she held his look, undeterred.

"We pledged loyalty to him"

"So? That pledge was rendered worthless when he shot his cannon, killing hundreds of our brothers, including Alpha, and drove the rest of us straight to defeat at the hands of _one_ enemy"

He was right, she couldn't refute his argument, lord Shen had proven that he didn't cared about his minions at all, she had no reason to help him. Chao shook her hand off his shoulder.

"It is over, girl, we're leaving" he said "You are free to come with us"

Something inside her rebelled, it wasn't right, Shen was their lord, they had swore to serve him with their lives.

"He needs us!" she yelled at the wolf "A wolf does not run away, Chao, and we do not break our promises! We can't turn our backs..."

But Chao's patience was over, he slapped her in the face, cutting her speech, several wolves stopped what they were doing to look at them. Jian covered her cheek with her paw, holding the tears that covered her eyes and wanted to come out.

"That's enough" said the black wolf in a severe tone "I don't want to hear anything else about that damn bird... He has only brought misery upon us"

* * *

><p>He was at the dark void of death again, although he knew that he wasn't dead, and this peaceful time was just momentary: In a few minutes he would wake up and return to the real world, the one in which he was trapped, his return thwarted before starting, his cousin about to steal his invention, everything because of his recklessness, he hadn't learned anything, has plan had been so stupid, <em>he<em> had been stupid, Shen thought, sinking his face in his hands.

"Indeed you were, dear"

The peacock's head raised like a spring upon hearing this, looking for the source of the familiar voice. Floating in front of him was the soothsayer.

"Nana!" It was the first time that he addressed her like that since he was twelve "What are you doing here?"

"I'm not here, Shen, I'm dead, this is just a creation of your mind, I'm a reflection of everything that you remember about the soothsayer displayed with her appearance"

"I'm hallucinating..." understood Shen "But it should start in at least four or five days... I haven't been here that long, have I?"

"Time perception is usually lost along with consciousness, so it is possible that you have..." answered the imaginary goat "But no, it hasn't been two days from your capture yet"

"Then why...?"

"Oh, you have never been good with wounds and diseases, honey, remember?"

"Oh" said Shen "I have to get out of here..."

"I agree" nodded the soothsayer "But how are you going to do it?" he fixed her a cold glare

"I have a plan, old goat..." he said with arrogant air

"Oh yeah?" she laughed "Like relying on a single wolf that has no reason to stick loyal to you to summon a disbanded army to come in your aid? Is _that_ your master plan, Shen?"

The goat grinned when he narrowed his eyes and his crest flattened.

"I thought that almost dying should have made you wiser and more cautious, but I didn't expected it to do the opposite..."

"SHUT UP!" exploded Shen

"Do you really want that? Remember that this is yourself that you are talking to" said the goat, and then asked "What were you thinking, Shen? You tried to attack your enemy in his domain, without having fully recovered from your wounds or having the slightest idea of his situation; you thought that you were invincible and now you are paying for it: Your arrogance has once more provoked your defeat..."

"No!" interrupted the peacock "It was your fault! Everything! You helped the panda and you helped Qiao! You've always wanted me to fail! didn't you?"

"You know that I didn't" she said "But I couldn't let you continue with your plan, it was evil, and you know that as well, only that you don't want to admit it"

"Well, now, thanks to you, my dear cousin is going to carry out _my_ evil plan!"

"He still needs the formula of the gunpowder for that, and the false one that you gave him will delay him"

A few hours after his capture, Qiao had returned to the cell, along with a black and white snake that seemed to be an engineer, and, faking a breakdown, Shen had given them a formula with altered proportions of sulfur and potassium, claiming that it was more powerful than the regular one and that it was the one that he used on the weapons, only the first part being true.

The snake had mentioned that it should work, in theory, and his cousin had sent it away and told Shen that he would send the doctor if the test was successful. The white peacock knew in advance that it wouldn't be...

"But only for a short time" replied the peacock "And I won't resist much... It's a matter of time before I break and tell him the real formula"

"And you must die before that happens" said the goat

"_What_?"

"Your weapon must not be made again, Shen" she continued "And the only way to be sure that it doesn't do it is that you die and take it's secrets with you..."

"But... I don't want to die..." there was an almost supplicant tone in Shen's voice

"Why not?" asked the soothsayer without mercy "What binds you to this world? You have nothing left, no one will regret your death, not even that wolf. And what would you do with your life, anyway? It has no purpose, it never did..."

Shen felt that he was missing air, he didn't want to hear her words, because they were _true_...

"... The least you can do to amend all the harm that you have made to this world is making sure that your monster doesn't threaten it again" she wouldn't stop talking, the peacock covered his ears, but the voice wasn't coming from outside "I'm not trying to persuade you, Shen, I'm your conscience. You already know all this, the only thing left for you to do is to accept it..."

"NO!" he shut his eyes, and the voice went silent...

"Do you think you are funny?" that wasn't the soothsayer. Shen opened his eyes and found Qiao's angry stare. He was back in the real world, as indicated by the horrible pain that rose from his shoulder: the wound was already inflamed and burning.

"How did the test go?" he asked innocently "And where is my doctor? I'd really like to - Ow!" Qiao hit him in the face with his talons before he could finish

"The cannon was practically destroyed and four of my guards were killed" said the blue peacock

"Damn, I must have given you the wrong formula by accident" laughed Shen, this earned him a kick to the stomach. He bent over, panting, and before that he could catch his breath, Qiao grabbed him by the neck and pushed him against the wall.

"I don't have time for your stupid games, you worthless scum!" he shouted at Shen's face.

* * *

><p>Shu had been reading the letters inside the bamboo tube that the soothsayer had given her, puzzled about their content. Most of them were nonsense, either unconnected words written randomly or illegible characters scattered across the pages. Some of them had rudimentary drawings, like a red eye or a black sun with six flames coming out of it; there was one that had a long text written in an unknown alphabet, few pages were understandable, two of them, actually, one of them had been torn apart and half the sheet was missing, and the other contained several quotes and proverbs about mercy and forgiving the wrong doers in order to save them.<p>

She had just finished reading this page when she heard voices talking hastily out of her room. Hearing trough the door she learned that there had been an explosion at the barn where Wen was working. _Wen_...

The young peahen rushed to his friend's room but found it empty. She asked a servant, who told her that she hadn't seen the snake since the last night; desperate, she asked about her father, but the servant didn't knew where he was either.

She was running across the main hall, heading towards his father's office, when she heard his voice, raising from the door that led to the basement, which was being guarded by two boars. When she tried to go in there, the guards blocked her way.

"Leave me trough" ordered Shu

"I'm sorry, mi lady, but we can't" said one of the boars "Lord Qiao ordered it"

Another yell came from the basement, the peahen caught the words "games" and "scum", it was his father voice, and he sounded really upset.

"Well, I'm lifting that order, now _stand aside_"

More screams, and now someone was laughing.

"I'm sorry, we can't"

Suddenly, the laughter changed into screams of pain.

"Alright, that's enough" said Shu, grabbing her sword...

* * *

><p>"I don't have time for your stupid games, you worthless scum!"<p>

"We'll, I, on the other side, have plenty of time" said Shen with strangled voice and laughed "Either way, you're wasting your limited time by asking me, cousin: I will never allow my creations to be desecrated by an ignorant bastard like you" he added, his laughter was growing louder.

"Don't you dare calling me like that again, Shen..." whispered Qiao with a waring glow in his eyes "Now give me what I want!"

The white peacock's laughter kept going undeterred by his menacing tone, maybe he was already hallucinating.

"Or what? Are you going to order one of your archers to shoot me again, you bast-AAAAGH!" waves of the worst pain he'd ever felt in his life shook his body. Qiao had gripped the arrow and was twisting it, holding Shen still with his other wing.

When he stopped he released him and the white peacock fell to the ground, panting and shaking. Qiao had wanted to see this for over thirty years.

"You aren't so cocky now, are you?" he asked, looking down on Shen, he grabbed the tip of the arrow and gently pulled of it to the left. Another scream.

"Does it hurt, little ghost?" he asked, with a fake worried tone "I can keep doing this for hours, and personally I would like to, but it is over whenever you want"

"Go to hell"

"Oh my, I had forgotten how persistent you are" Qiao twisted the arrow again "Give me that formula!" he shouted over Shen's screams.

"Stop whining, you white rat, and _give me that weapon_!"

He heard the sound of a metallic object hitting the ground behind him and when he turned around he saw Shu, who had dropped her sword in shock and was looking at him with a terrified expression.

"Shu!" he said, jumping off Shen, but the peahen ran away before he could reach her.

Cursing and ignoring Shen, who was lying in the floor nearly unconscious, Qiao closed the cell door, picked up the sword and went after his daughter.

* * *

><p>Shu slammed the door and leaned against it, breathing heavily with her eyes wide open in shock. The image of her father torturing the white peacock was still very fresh, especially his almost psychopath expression when he had faced her...<p>

"Shu!" it was him, he tried to open the door but the peahen put all her weight on it to avoid it "Shu, please you have to let me explain..."

There was despair in his voice, but it wasn't because he regretted what he had done: he regretted that she had seen him...

"Please, leave..." said Shu with a broken voice.

"No! You have to let me explain... I have to tell you why..."

"Fine! Explain!"

Qiao was rendered speechless for a moment, surprised by her suddenly hard tone, so similar to her mother's... And now both peahen knew what he was, and they had reacted in the same way. Lady Xiu hadn't spoken to him since after the dwell, and now Shu...

"It... It was necessary"

_Necessary_! how could that monstrosity be necessary! Thought Shu.

"Why?"

"Because he had... Information... Very valuable information..."

She had heard her father before seeing him, she knew what was that information: Lord Shen's weapon... Now she knew what was Wen so busy with, her father wanted to use that horrible artifact, despite of all the suffering that it had brought to the city. It was unbelievable! The same man that had raised and took care of her, laughed with her; capable of such acts and plans...

"What information?" She would give him the chance to be honest for once...

"I... I wanted to know..." Qiao hesitated "About the wolves, there are still a lot of them and they might be regrouping and preparing a raid on the city..."

"Leave" Shu said

"But..."

"_Leave_!" she heard her father trying to say something, but then he seemed to reconsider it and left. His talons made a ticking noise against the wooden floor than faded when he was far enough...

That night, she couldn't sleep, she rolled in her bed until she gave up and decided to try to keep her mind busy. She would had liked to go out for a walk, but she declined this idea when she saw the shadow of a guard trough the slit under the door. She lit a candle and began to walk in circles around her room. The earlier scenes kept jumping into her mind and she shook her head trying to focus on something else... The rain season would start in a few days, back in the north it was not a happy time of the year, it got unbearably wet and cold and windy. But here in the province of Xu, it was a season of joy and prosperity, the flooded rice fields were a breathtaking spectacle, so had said the old goat that had received them into the palace...

Shu went back to examine the letters in her desk and grabbed the one of the proverbs, they all talked about mercy and compassion...

Lord Shen had done horrible things, if anyone didn't deserve compassion it was him. But for some reason this thought didn't made her feel better, it still didn't justified her father's actions. He was abusing of an injured and enchained man and only to take possession of the weapon, to become a being as villainous as the white peacock.

She read one of the quotes "All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed, can wrong-doing remain?". She had to transform her father's mind then? How could that be done? If he was so determined that he went to the extreme of torture, how could she persuade him of changing?

As long as lord Shen was there her father would not stop pursuing his goal, no matter how far he went...

Another quote "Be the change that you want to see in the world" Shu stood up, determined to do something...

* * *

><p>"Did you hear?" said the wolf to his partner, as they mounted a large tent, it was dark already and the group of canes had spent the entire day marching to the west, they were making the first pause and the leader had ordered to settle camp within a small forest. The wolves were efficiently setting fires and mounting a few tents. Most of the load remained loaded in the carts, as they would resume the journey at dawn.<p>

"What?" asked his partner

"The girl that came from the north of the city, she said that lord Shen is alive and wants to retake the city..."

"Ha! Bunch of nonsense! Lord Shen is dead, his boat exploded in the middle of the harbor, Delun saw it, the girl must be crazy or something"

"But what if she isn't? She also said that he had infiltrated the city to assassinate the new governor..."

"Do you mean lord Shen?" a third wolf joined the conversation "Do you believe that he's alive?"

"Of course not!" exclaimed the second wolf, but the first one gave him a harsh look and said

"The only proof that he is dead is an explosion seen from hundreds of meters away"

"It's still more than the proof that he is alive" replied the wolf "And if he was, what do we owe him? He didn't cared about us, so why should we care about him? We're better now"

"Are we? Look at us, we are fleeing, running away from a group of _boars_!" intervened the third wolf

"A well-armed and numerous group of boars against which we have no chance of standing up more than five minutes, yes, and at least we will live..."

"And then what? We settle down in a hidden valley or something and become peaceful farmers for the rest of our days? We're soldiers! We should stay and fight!"

Similar conversations were taking place across the entire camp, and Chao soon gained knowledge of this. A whispering crew is never a good omen for the command figure, the black wolf had been accepted as the new alpha without objections of any kind, but he was inexperienced and he still hadn't earned the pack's complete loyalty. It was time to stop this before it grew out of control; he approached the central fire and gathered the wolves with a howl. It wasn't long until all of them had gathered around him; he lifted a fist to silence the murmurs.

"Brothers and sisters!" he said "It has come to my ears that some of you are worried about the fate of our former master, lord Shen..." he was interrupted by a new wave of whispers that began at the mention of the peacock and he had to wait almost a minute before silence was restored

"You may have heard that he survived the battle and that he is calling for us now, but do not be fooled, as this is false!"

"No, it isn't!" Jian stepped forward, entering the circle "He is alive, I've seen him, and he needs us!"

"How do you know?" asked someone between the crowd. The question was echoed by other wolves' approving yells and she even heard someone screaming "You're lying!"

Chao gave her a sufficiency grin, and the young woman went speechless for a moment, until she remembered... She had completely forgotten, how stupid of her...

Jian extracted a small white object from the neck of her vest and lifted it high for everyone to see. Then she handed it to Chao.

It was a white feather, with a red eye on the tip, the black wolf recognized it as one of lord Shen's crest feathers and by the scent he knew it had been recently plucked, less than three days ago.

"What do you say now?" asked Jian, taking the feather of his hands and giving it to the wolves, each one of them examined it disbelievingly for a few seconds and passed it to someone else. Soon, everyone was convinced: Lord Shen was alive.

"Still, why should we help him?" asked Chao "He forsook us!"

"Because we swore to serve him with with our lives!" said Jian, and then addressed the crowd "Have you all forgotten about that? Our lord needs us and instead of helping him as we should be doing, we run away like cowards! What would our fathers think about that?" She turned to face Chao

"What would alpha think about that?" the black wolf's ears flattened and a loud growl trembled in his throat, but the young girl didn't let herself intimidate by that...

"It's not that simple, girl" said a large female, standing ahead of the crowd "Lord Qiao's army is too powerful and numerous, and there is also the warrior that swept the camp the other day, we're at a great disadvantage here..."

"But they're not as familiar with the city as we are, and they are disperse, if we're smart when we make our move, we should get the upper hand when we reach the palace"

"What do you mean by _smart_?" asked another wolf

"I've been to the city, several times" answered Jian "The roofs are not watched, it is possible to cross the entire city undetected trough them, if we split into small groups we should be able to reach the palace without them noticing us until we fell on them, and if we strike at night they'll be the ones at disadvantage. This is not impossible!"

"No, but it almost" interrupted Chao "You're leaving to much to chance, if anything was to happen different to your plan everyone of us would die..."

"Then so be it!" another wolf had spoken, there was fire in his eyes, that had been off since lord Shen's defeat. And he wasn't the only one: Several wolves had adopted determined expressions, that had replaced the hopelessness and defeat ones. The wolf continued "If I'm going to die, I prefer to do it on my feet, fighting to retrieve what was taken from us and keeping my vows, instead of running away in shame after one defeat!"

"Yeah!" said several voices

"We must go back!", "We're wasting time!", "Lord Shen is counting on us!" sayings of this kind were emerging from the crowd, each one louder than the previous. The entire pack joined in a collective howl retrieving it's lost fighting spirit.

Chao doubted for a second before joining the howl. Jian felt her chest bursting with excitement as she howled along with her brothers...

* * *

><p>"That was close" said the soothsayer<p>

"What?" asked Shen harshly

"If the girl hadn't showed up and interrupted Qiao, you would have sung even the color of your underwear"

"The soothsayer was nicer, you know..."

"I'm not the soothsayer, remember?" said the goat "Have you thought of what I said?"

Shen didn't answer and looked away

"I know it's hard, Shen, but believe me, it's the best choice..."

"He won't do it" someone else had talked, Shen looked at the source of the voice and saw...

Himself.

He was standing besides the soothsayer, looking at him.

"What's the meaning of this?" asked Shen, alarmed. His copy laughed.

"Look at him! He's not capable of doing it! He doesn't have the nerve!" the copy spoke with his voice, in the same derogatory tone that the real Shen normally used for talking to everybody "He's a coward! A little insignificant and coward maggot! He will condemn the entire world for not daring to face the unknown!" he laughed harder at Shen's terrified expression.

"Listen to me, Shen!" said the soothsayer over the deafening laughs "I know you are scared, but it's the only way for you to be free..."

"What?"

"He won't do it!" repeated the copy, getting louder and louder

"Will you _shut up_?" screamed Shen, loosing his patience.

Silence. After his rapture, both the goat and the copy disappeared, the last one's laughs echoed for a moment.

"Trust me, Shen, do not fear the unknown and you'll finally be at peace..." the soothsayer's voice rang across the black void.

* * *

><p>"He's going to wake up! Hold him still!"<p>

Shen felt a pair of wings holding his arms still a second before a fire started in his shoulder. He opened his eyes, screaming and struggling to set free. The person holding him was weaker than him and he almost threw her down, but a pair of hoofs appeared in her aid and held him still. Finally, the peacock stopped fighting and the burning in his wound faded slowly.

"Don't worry, lord Shen, we're here to help you"

"What? Who are you?" at the light of the torch, he recognized Qiao's daughter, what was her name? Shu.

"I'm..."

"Yeah, yeah, I remember you" interrupted Shen. Another wave of pain. He looked at his wound and saw a sleepy looking pig pouring an antiseptic potion in it. The arrow was gone and his entire arm had turned red.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked. The young peahen didn't answered at first. She felt intimidated by the white peacock, his red eyes were like burning coal, although they were lifeless now.

"I... I wanted..."

"Let me guess" said Shen "You felt sympathetic about the weak sickly prisoner and wanted to do something that eased his suffering"

"N... No, that's not..."

"You shouldn't worry about me, girl, it's not your fault that I'm here..."

"Shut up!" exclaimed Shu "I'm not doing this for you!"

This surprised Shen. In his entire life, the soothsayer was the only woman that had ever stood up and faced him.

"Why are you doing it, then?" he asked.

She gave him a hard look.

"I don't want my father to become a monster because of you" Shen laughed at her words

"Hahaha AAOWWW!" his laugh ended in whining when the pig pressed a bandage against his wound

"What's so funny?"

"You may not be aware, but your father is already a monster, the loving father and just ruler picture that he shows to you and the rest of the world is just a smoke screen to conceal it from himself"

"You're lying!" said Shu

"You are free to think that if it makes you feel better" replied Shen "Anyways, why do you think that healing my wounds will help your father?"

"I won't allow you to give him the secret of your weapon"

"And you think that he can't torture me if I'm not wounded? That's flattering, girl, but despite what you may think, I'm not ..."

"I'm going to let you go away"

At first Shen believed that he hadn't heard right, then he believed that she was playing with him

"You will leave, I don't care where, you will never again come near to my father, build one of your weapons or talk about them" said the peahen with an authoritarian voice

"That's a lot you are asking" said Shen. The physician had finished bandaging his wound and was packing his gear "Why do you think that I'll stick to your terms?"

"Because I've had your life in my hands, _twice_" what did she meant with "twice". Shen was confused, until the peahen showed him the bloody arrow. The feather in it's tip was green and iridescent, just as the ones in her neck.

"You!" he said, trying to stand up, but he was too weak, he gave her a furious look from the floor, which stated it clear that he would have killed her without hesitation if he wasn't chained to the wall.

"Yes, me" said Shu "If I had aimed a little lower I would have hit your heart and you would be dead now. Your life belongs to me, lord Shen"

She went after the physician and closed the cell door.

"I will come to look for you tomorrow at night" she informed, before leaving the place.

The pig followed her, eager to return to bed. At midway he touched his pockets, noticing that he was missing a medical knife. But then he shook his head and kept walking. He must had put it in his briefcase, he thought, casting the matter away from his mind...

* * *

><p>Shen leaned his back against the stone wall, releasing a long sigh when his shoulder moved. It was a relief having the arrow out of his body after almost two days.<p>

And it had been the girl! She must had returned after Qiao ordered her to leave, or maybe she never left and his cousin had used her as a last resource in case something went wrong. And now she was going to let him out hoping that he would leave, just like that.

The white peacock laughed, extracting the physician's knife from his sleeve and rolling it between his fingers. Taking the utensil had been so easy... The next time Qiao went into the cell, trusting to be in control... Shen slashed the air in front of his face, picturing a blue neck spraying blood, and a sinister grin formed in his beak... Or maybe he should wait until the next night, when the peahen tried to release him... She had stood in his way, and she had to pay for it. Maybe he would kill her in front of his cousin. Only picturing the blue peacock's face made his heart beat faster.

He would make his cousin feel what he had felt, he would avenge the soothsayer...

Speaking of which, he didn't remembered the last time he had seen her. Forcing his memory, he recalled their last conversation, at the fireworks factory, she had asked him if the subjugation of China would give him happiness, trying to persuade him to abandon his chosen path. Had she done so because she cared about the world? Or maybe about his soul? Perhaps she had foreseen that it would lead him to this. Of course she did, thought Shen, the warrior of black and white and all that.

What would she think if she saw him now? Rejoicing at the thought of harming other people. She would be disgusted, but she would try to guide him back to the right path.

What if the image in his mind wasn't a hallucination but a message from the soothsayer? Did she wanted him to die? Shen remembered it's words... _nothing binds you to this world... no one will regret your death_. Now that he thought about it, it was right, what was the point of taking revenge on Qiao? He had no objective, there was nothing really worthy for him to do...

Feeling numb, he rose the knife and placed it in his neck. The blade dived between his feathers and he shuddered when the cold metal kissed his skin. Closing his eyes, lord Shen gave a deep breath and prepared to die. Qiao wouldn't be able to use his weapons and he would be free of his anodyne existence...

"I'll show you who's the coward" he whispered, and prepared to slice his throat.

After a few seconds, he withdrew the knife. He didn't wanted to die. Was his life actually meaningless? Until now his only goal was punishing Qiao for insulting his memory, but now he remembered his former ambitions: Seeing China united under his flag, ruling the greatest empire the world would ever see, leaving his mark carved in fire on history. His name would be remembered and revered by everyone until the end of time. That was worth living for, he thought, to hell with the old goat, she had betrayed him, as everyone else he had trusted in.

Shen stood up with difficulty.

"I will live" he stated "I will live and China..."

No! It was wrong! It was time to aim higher

"The world will know to bow before me!"

* * *

><p><strong>What do you guys think about that! Thanks for waiting, you are awesome (although you don't have a choice anyway). I recall promissing you an interlude (of doom).<strong>

**It's already finished (the three chapters), and I'll be posting during the next few days. Keep your browsers peeled...**

**Reviews are highly appreciated. Thank you for reading**


	6. Interlude I

The white emperor

Interlude I

"But I don't want to go!" complained the young boy "And I'm already learning kung fu with master Rhino!"

The soothsayer sighed, tired of explaining the same for the tenth time

"It is your parents' wish that you learn a more specialized kung fu style" explained the old goat. The white peachick gave a skeptical snort

"It's because master Rhino has grown tired of me, I know..." he said, looking at his feet "... he realized that I have no talent, that I'm too _weak_" he added, bitterly

"Oh, dear, that's not true" she tried to comfort him

"Yes it is!" exploded Shen "I'm just a burden! The only thing I do is waste everybody's time! That's why my parents are sending me away!"

His face was wet with tears. He angrily wiped them, repressing his sobs. The soothsayer went near him and hugged him, her eyes were wet too...

The chick struggled to restrain himself, but after a few seconds his shoulders shocked with his silent sobs. He hated crying, it exposed his weakness even more, but he couldn't help it.

"I don't want to go, Nana..." he sobbed.

The old goat rocked him fondly until he calmed down and then gently pushed him away to look at his eyes

"You are not a burden, and nobody is sending you away because they're tired of you" she said, drying his face with her sleeve

"Yes, they are" insisted Shen

"Is there any problem, soothsayer?" the chick and the goat saw a tall blue peacock standing at the door

"Oh, no, mi lord" said the old lady "I was just helping the prince with his luggage, we were about to go down"

Lord Jian Yu entered the room and looked at the white chick, who was staring at his feet to avoid his father's gaze.

"Could you please go ahead and inform master Rhino that Shen will be there in a moment?" he asked the goat "I wish to have a word with my son"

"Yes, mi lord" answered the soothsayer and reassuringly touched Shen's shoulder before leaving the chick's room, leaving him alone with his father.

After a few seconds, Jian Yu broke the awkward silence.

"Look at me, Shen" he said, and the chick reluctantly obeyed him "Do you understand why we are doing this?"

The correct thing would be to say "yes", but the young boy _didn't_ understood, so he slowly shook his head, fearing his father's reaction.

Lord Jian Yu was not a violent man, but his relation with Shen was distant and cold. The blue peacock never showed his emotions in front of his son and was very severe.

The boy looked away, unable to hold his brown look any longer.

"You were able to learn the basics of kung fu from master Thundering Rhino" he said "But being a member of the royal peafowl clan as you are, you are required to master the Cai Li Fo style, as the rest of us did"

"But why do I have to go that far and for that long?" asked Shen, and then respectfully added "... Father?"

"Because you are going to the school in which everyone of our ancestors completed their instruction and became masters"

"Even you and mother?" asked the boy.

"Yes" replied Jian Yu "It is one of the finest kung fu schools in China"

"But I'm too weak!" repeated Shen "There's no way that I'll achieve...!"

"You still have to learn that physical strength is not important, son" the blue peacock kneeled to meet his son's eyes and he grabbed his shoulder. The young boy was shocked when he looked at his father. For the first time, there was _love_ in the old peafowl's eyes when they looked at him

"You _will_ succeed, Shen" he said, firmly "I have faith in you"

The soothsayer and his mother were waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs. Shen ran to meet them and hugged his mother first

"Goodbye, mother" he said

"Goodbye, son" replied the peahen with a broken voice, corresponding his embrace "I will miss you..."

He then hugged the old goat

"Goodbye, Nana, I will miss you" he was struggling not to cry.

Despite that his relation with his mother was warmer than with his father, the soothsayer was still the person about he cared the most.

"Me too, dear, me too" she answered "Remember that it's just a few years"

_A few years_. That was a lot in a child's mind. For a twelve years old boy like Shen "a few years" meant almost half of his life.

He wiped some rebel tears off his face, knowing that his father was standing behind him, and turned around. Lowering his face he said, desperately trying to keep his voice from trembling:

"Good... Goodbye, father"

"Goodbye, Shen" answered the blue peacock in his usual cold tone.

The small group crossed the wooden doors and exited to the palace's front yard, which was covered by the orange light of the sunset.

A pair of servants that were carrying a bag that contained Shen's belongings were waiting for them near the wall gates, and standing besides them was master Thundering Rhino; he would be the one to take the boy safely to the school.

"Good afternoon" he said when the nobles and the goat had arrived to his side, and then looked at Shen

"Are you ready, my prince?"

"Yes, master"

"Very well, let us get going then" With a sign of his arm the wolf guards opened the heavy gates to let them trough.

Shen followed his master, but when he reached the gate he stopped and turned around to look at the people he was leaving behind. Their figures stood out on the large silhouette of the Tower of Sacred Flame. The white peachick put his wings together and bowed to them

"Goodbye, everybody!" he said with a firm voice "I promise that I won't let you down! When I return I will make all of you proud, I swear!"

The trio watched him run to catch up with his (former) master. There were tears in the women's eyes and Jian Yu was surprised to feel a knot in his throat. He blinked furiously to make the sting in his eyes go away...

* * *

><p>Lord Shen and master Rhino boarded a ship that took them upstream, deep into the country, where the school was located.<p>

They sailed trough the river for three days until they reached the province of Yu.

Because of the amount of time they had spent together, master Rhino was the closest to a paternal figure that the young prince had, so the trip turned out to be quite enjoyable for both of them.

On the fourth day they disembarked in a small village and continued the journey by land. The Cai Li Fo school was deep inside a large bamboo forest, in a place called the cliff of the singing waters. After a two days walk, they were finally close to their destination.

"Have you ever been to the school, master?" asked Shen, walking besides the large man

"Yes, once. When I was twenty five years old" answered master Rhino "And I met the one that's going to be your teacher"

"Really? What is he like?"

"He's quiet, patient, wise, _old_... You know, an average kung fu master"

"Like you?"

"Yes"

"You mean you're old as well?"

"Hey! I'm not that old!" laughed the rhino, and then seriously added "And be careful with the things you say: He may be a kind man but he's still your master and you must be respectful"

"Yes, master" answered Shen

They remained silent for a while, walking trough the wide road that slithered between the bamboo trees.

It was hot and humid in there; banks of mist rose between the green logs and the scent of wet land filled their noses.

"Is there anyone else living in the school besides the master?" asked Shen, finally.

"I don't know for sure, but there should be a few servants" replied master Rhino "and I heard that there are two or three peafowls studying there as well, some of your cousins"

"My cousins..." repeated Shen, suddenly feeling bad "... I don't like them"

He remembered the meetings with other members of the clans. Oh, he remembered them... The adult peafowls would look at him with pity and some of them even with contempt. And the children... They feared him, even the older ones, and they had always shun him, casted him away whenever he tried to talk to them...

The trail ended abruptly in a large clearing covered with grass; to the right the bamboo trees formed a green wall, and to the left, the ground ended in a tall cliff. Almost over the edge, on the other side of the clearing, was a large stone building, behind of which flowed a small creek, that died in a noisy waterfall.

The rhino and the chick approached the building, soaking their feet with the wet grass. The structure was tall, it must had two, maybe three floors. The roof stood over two meters away from the wall and was held by thick stone pillars. The walls were age worn and there was moss between the bricks.

Master Rhino dropped the bag with Shen's luggage and told the boy to wait there while he went to look after the master; and left him alone.

It was really quiet there, the sound of the river and the waterfall was relaxing (Shen figured out why it was called the cliff of the singing waters), the air was still and he had heard that in that region the sun was covered by a layer of clouds for most of the year, and that rain and mist were omnipresent; he liked the rain...

He heard voices and saw that master Rhino was coming from behind the building, talking to an adult peacock that was wearing a brown robe. Shen was intrigued at the sight of the master, as he was different to any peafowl that he had ever seen: he was bigger than his parents and uncles and he was _green_.

When he came closer, Shen could appreciate other little differences; besides of his metallic green plumage, his crest was not a fan of feathers that resembled the ones of the trains, but a cluster of straight long feathers at the back of his head that curved downwards near it's end. His eyelids where white instead of brown or gray, and by the bags they had the prince guessed that he was older than his father.

"Shen, this is master Renshu" presented master Rhino. The green peafowl, who was as tall as him, respectfully bowed to the child.

"Good afternoon, my prince" he saluted. His voice was soft and gentle, unlike the rhino's grave grunt, and his eyes were kind and peaceful

"Welcome to my house" he added

"Thank you, sir" replied the boy

"Very well, I must take my leave" said master Rhino

"Would you like to spend the night here?" asked Renshu

"Oh, no thanks, master" replied the rhino "I must return to Gongmen city as soon as possible"

"As you wish, have a safe trip, master"

"Thank you, master"

They bowed to each other and then master Rhino turned to face Shen

"Farewell, Shen" he said putting his massive hand on the child's shoulder "You have been a superb disciple"

Said this he put his hands together and bowed to him. He than grabbed his Cloud hammer and left without saying anything else.

The two peafowls watched as master Rhino disappeared in the green mass and then looked at each other.

"Come with me, Shen" said Renshu. The chick grabbed his bag and followed the master. His tail was also longer than those of the normal peacocks.

"Did you have a pleasant journey?" he asked as they went around the building.

"Yes"

"Good" the green peacock smiled "This will be your house for the next couple of years. What do you think about it?"

"It is beautiful, sir" answered the chick

"I'm glad you like it, I share your opinion" they were now walking trough the side that was against the cliff, a set of wooden railings had been placed there to avoid potential accidents. Shen saw a misty valley that extended farther than the eye could see.

"By the way, while you are here you should address me as master" said Renshu, without reproach in his voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry, master" apologized Shen

"Don't worry"

They kept walking until they reached the other side of the building, the one that was facing the river. A wooden bridge connected the covered walkway with a stone platform at the other side of the river, in which a group of peafowl were training.

"Master Rhino told me that you already dominate the basics of kung fu, is that right?" asked Renshu

"Yes, master" said Shen

"Very well, then I would like to test your level, and you can also meet the rest of the students, although I imagine that you must know some of them already"

Shen didn't answered as they crossed the bridge. When they entered the arena everyone quited what they were doing and turned to salute the master.

There were five peafowls and a young golden pheasant, Shen recognized some of them.

"Everybody, this is prince Shen, from Gongmen city" announced Renshu and then began to introduce them to the chick. Each bird saluted at the mention of his or her name.

"This is master Ling, he's my successor..." he was an adult peacock, a little younger than Jian Yu

"... Master Daiyu, from the Ji province..." a brown peahen that smiled at him

"... Lord Gui..." Shen knew this one, he remembered him from one of the familiar meetings, he was the brother of the lord of the Yu province...

Renshu moved on to the young ones, all of which seemed to be a little older than him

"... princess Jingfei..." a young peahen, probably less than fifteen years old

"... prince Tai, from the Qing province..." the golden pheasant seemed to be the closest to him in age, although he was probably a few months older. His big yellow eyes were fixed in his white feathers with a curious expression, and when he cocked his head his hood of feathers amusingly shook.

"... and prince Qiao, from the Yan province" finished the master.

The two boys looked at each other and Shen's crest lowered. He knew his cousin since he was four, and since the first time they'd met the had intensely hated each other...

Renshu told Shen to stand in the middle of the platform an the rest of the students formed a circle around him.

"We'll see what have you learned so far..." said the master and then looked at his students "... We're going to need a volunteer"

Master Ling opened his beak but someone talked ahead of him

"I'll do it" said Qiao. The green peacock told him to step forward. The blue peacock stood in front of Shen with a petulant smile on his beak, which the chick corresponded with a cold stare.

"Shen, I want you to try to hit Qiao, just once" said Renshu "He won't attack you but he is allowed to counter your attacks, understood?"

"Yes, master"

"Very well, you may begin... _Now_!"

Shen adopted a fighting stance, trying to ignore all the eyes staring at him and focusing on his cousin, who had just hidden one of his wings behind his back and raised the other at face height; and that annoying smile was still there...

Shen lunged at him and launched a series of punches and kicks like master Rhino had taught him; his cousin blocked all of them effortlessly with one wing and then turned around to trip him with his train, that already exceeded the meter and half.

The white chick wasn't expecting that and fell on his back. He stood back up as fast as he could. Qiao's smile was wider now; he had always enjoyed to ridicule him, and that was what he was doing now. Shen was determined to wipe that arrogant grin off his face.

He jumped extending his foot, attempting to kick his cousin's chest, but he dodged him and punched him in the stomach, sending him away. He stood up with difficulty, panting to catch his breath. The smile was still there, humiliating him. Master Daiyu had a worried expression, Gui seemed to be amused by the spectacle, Tai seemed to be divided between interest and unease and Jingfei's face was inexpressive...

Shen continued to stand up and try to hit Qiao again, and again, and he would always be rejected and sent flying back.

"That's enough" said Renshu, finally deciding that Shen could take no more...

"No!" said the chick standing up. It was evident that he was at his limit, his legs were shaking and he was panting with his head lowered.

"You should listen the master" mocked Qiao "You are done! Do you want me to beat you even more... _Little ghost_"

"Qiao!" said Renshu, his gentle voice had changed into a severe tone. But the damage was already done. Shen ran his cousin using the last remnants of energy left in him. Qiao gave a scornful snort as the chick neared him.

When he was close enough, the blue peacock launched a punch to his throat. But a that moment, Shen lunged backwards, adopting a horizontal pose in mid air, with his feet pointing upwards, to his cousin's face...

Qiao couldn't react fast enough and he received the full impact of the chick's kick in his jaw, and now he was the one to be thrown backwards.

Shen had fallen as well. He tried to get up but he couldn't, he was dead. He lifted his head and saw his cousin standing up a few meters away from him, with his hand on his beak and his eyes fixed in him. The smile was finally gone and had been replaced by a murderous expression...

Qiao was going to kill him, he could see it in his eyes as he lunged at him with an enraged scream. He was too tired, he couldn't defend himself. The only thing Shen was able to do as his cousin jumped over him with his talons extended forward was to put a wing in front of his face and brace himself for the end...

"_I said enough_!" a green barrier rose between them, throwing Qiao away.

Renshu was standing between them with his enormous fan opened to separate them. He was breathing heavily and when Shen looked at his eyes he saw that his kindness had left them and they were now filled with cold wrath...


	7. Interlude II

The white emperor

Interlude II

The next day, Shen woke up feeling that his entire body was a single bruise. He whined when he remembered the recent events: arriving to the school, meeting Renshu, fighting with his cousin and managing to hit him _once_. The rest was blurred... He remembered th master's furious expression and someone taking him to the bedroom they had prepared for him. He looked around, curious. He was in a small room with stone walls and wooden floor, the old wrecked bed he was lying at composed the only furniture, and someone had left his bag next to it, there was no decoration and only one window. From the light that poured from it he guessed that the morning had just arrived.

The young chick had to gather all of his courage before trying to get up, and when he did it, every cell of his body seemed to explode in pain. He stepped away from the bed, ignoring the pain the best he could, and limped outside the room.

He hadn't looked inside the house until then. He saw that it was as plain as his room. The stone walls were naked and there weren't any ornaments in the doors of windows.

He was standing in a narrow corridor, there were many doors along the walls and everything was silent. That must be were the students' rooms were.

He spotted a stair that went down, which meant that he was in the second floor. The ground floor was deserted as well, and the young peacock began to worry.

When he went outside, he spotted a green figure standing at the verge of the cliff. Master Renshu was standing in one leg, looking to the void and not minding the chilly wind of the morning, he didn't moved when the white chick came near to him.

"Good morning, Shen" he said so suddenly that he startled the boy "Are you feeling better?"

"Good morning, master" he said, cautiously. Although his voice was calm, Shen wasn't sure if he was still mad at him "Y...Yes, I am"

"It's good to hear it"

"Um, what are you doing, sir" asked the boy

"I _was_ meditating"

"OH! I didn't mean to interrupt you, master! I'm so sorr..." his rushed apologies were interrupted by the sound of the green peacock's laughter

"Relax, boy, it's not a big deal!" he smiled at him

"So... You're not mad at me, master?"

"No, Shen, I'm not mad at you" hearing this made the boy release a relieved sigh

"And, about yesterday..." he said "I would like to apologize..."

"I'm not mad for that either" said Renshu "And if anyone should apologize, that would be me..."

Shen gave him a perplexed look

"I shouldn't have let you fight Qiao" explained the master "He gets carried away too easily and you were tired from your trip"

"It's not your fault, master, I would still have failed anyway..."

"I beg your pardon..." Renshu looked at him "... As I recall, you didn't failed, you managed to hit your opponent"

"But it was pure luck!" he answered "You saw me, master, he practically wiped the floor with me! I have been training my entire life and I got beaten up single-handed in a spare fight! I'm not good at this!"

"And yet you managed to surpass the defense of a larger, stronger, faster and more experienced opponent" insisted the green peacock and then asked "What do you know about Cai Li Fo?"

"Not much, only that it's the traditional style of our clan"

"And do you know the reason for that?" When the young boy couldn't answer, Renshu added "Have you ever seen anybody practicing it?"

"No"

"Well, I believe that master Ling is training at the platform right now, would you like to watch him?" Shen nodded enthusiastically and they headed to the back of the house.

Effectively, they saw the blue peacock standing alone in the middle of the stone platform, holding a wooden staff and not moving an inch.

"Master Ling has been mastering Cai Li Fo for over twenty years" whispered Renshu "He will be the one to lead the school after I'm gone"

"Why isn't he moving?" asked Shen

"He's preparing himself" answered the master "Wait and you will see..."

At that moment master Ling began his dance. Shen had never seen anything like that.

Back in Gongmen he had only seen masters Ox and Rhino practicing; their strength was amazing, the power of their fists could shatter stones, but this...

Master Ling's movements resembled those of a flame: never standing still, gracefully swinging his train, opening and closing it as fast as a heartbeat, always changing his size and shape, turning into a blue blur... And along with all of this he delivered deadly kicks with his talons and swung the staff with lighting speed. Shen was fascinated.

"Cai Li Fo is a style that focuses on speed and accuracy instead of strength and endurance..." explained Renshu "Your training until now was centered on the last two, which is no surprise at all, given who your master was..."

Shen felt a little upset because of the commentary about his old master, and the green peacock noticed it.

"I have a high esteem for master Thundering Rhino, he's one of the most skilled masters I will ever get to know" he said "However, his style is one that is not adequate for us peafowls to practice, don't you think?"

The chick remembered his master's devastating hits, effected with his heavy fists and hammer, and nodded.

"That is why you are here, Shen, to master a form of kung fu that fits our kind and can be one of the most powerful styles if used in the right way, like everyone of your ancestors did before you..." master Renshu kneeled so that their eyes were a the same level "... I would like to be your master, If you agree with that, and teach you the art of Cai Li Fo"

"Yes, I agree, master" said Shen with a mixture of determination and excitement, a powerful combination...

Renshu wanted Shen to wait until the next day to begin with his training, as he hadn't yet fully recovered from yesterday's beating, but the child's eagerness was such that the master agreed to let him start with something light. He took the chick near the edge of the bamboo forest and gave him a wooden staff. After this he proceeded to tech him some basic moves with it and told him to repeat them until he came back, leaving the child alone.

It was similar to master Rhino's teaching method, repeating a movement until he could execute it perfectly. Although there was a difference: while the movements that he'd had to practice in Gongmen were just simple punches and kicks, these were a complex sequence of strikes with the staff, executed with far greater speed.

Shen tried to ignore his sore limbs, but he quickly began to get tired and reducing his rhythm. He couldn't give up yet; he repeated the sequence once more: thrust forward... lateral sweep... thrust backward... vertical sweep and punch...

He repeated it one more time, and another, and yet another (each one slower than the previous), until he had to stop. Leaning on the staff and panting to catch his breath, the white chick realized that he was being watched. There was a pair of golden eyes looking at him from between the bamboo trees: It was the pheasant, what was his name? Tai.

How long had he been watching him? Not wanting to appear weak, Shen forced himself to stand up straight and repeat the routine. But he couldn't do more than two series before ending up in all fours.

Why was it so hard? He wondered, wasn't this a style made for the peafowls? Or maybe it _wasn't_ hard maybe it was just that he was _weak_, he thought, frustrated...

The pheasant was still there, staring at him. It was so annoying... But the chick was determined to ignore him, and tried to repeat the movements one more time.

But before he could stand up he heard the pheasant coming close to him. When Shen felt the small bird standing next to him, he lifted his sight to launch him an unfriendly stare and a scathing commentary, but instead of looking at him, Tai was looking forward, holding his own staff; and before Shen could say anything, he started mimicking his movements from a moment ago, only that he would execute them with astonishing speed and apparently no effort at all.

So he had come to mock him. This revived the his determination, he would show him...

Shen stood up, ignoring his pain and began the round of strikes, making sure to place all the strength he had left into every hit he gave, to show that insolent bird that he was no weakling. But Tai didn't seemed to be impressed by that, as a matter of fact, his strokes were weak and light, as if he cared only about speed and not about actual _power_, what was wrong with him?

Although they hadn't even talked to each other, a competition between the two boys had started and Shen quickly found himself trying to match the pheasant's speed, and to do this he had to diminish the force of his strikes. At first he felt uncomfortable about this: what was the point of hitting your target if you couldn't actually harm it? And despite that, the exercise had became easier, _much_ easier.

The white chick had been pausing between hits to add them more strength, but now he was just steadily swinging the staff, using the speed that it already carried to execute the following move. He discovered that not only could he do this almost effortlessly, but also his attacks were as strong (if not _stronger_) as they were before he changed his method...

That was it! He had made it! He had used Cai Li Fo. He was so focused that he didn't noticed that Tai had stopped practicing and was looking at him again.

Shen gave a last punch and froze, with his eyes wide opened, and then laughed briefly, with a mixture of excitement and incredulity. He looked at the pheasant, that was smiling at him. It was a friendly smile, and recognition could be seen within his golden eyes...

"Where is everybody?" asked Shen. He and Tai had resumed their practice, although they were lively talking now.

"In the forest" answered the pheasant "Master sends us there before dawn every day to train for three hours"

"Every day before dawn? Wow!" said the peachick, swinging his staff as fast as he could. Although he had already matched Tai's speed he suspected that the older boy was deliberately slowing down.

"Yeah, you should be starting with it as well, once you've learned the basics"

They remained silent for a moment, until Tai spoke again

"I think it was impressive how you managed to hit Qiao" he said with a serious tone

"Well, thanks..." answered Shen "Although it was just luck..."

"Still, it takes a lot of skill to dodge his defense..."

"Have you ever fought him?"

"Once..."

"And how did it go?"

"I was defeated..." from his tone, Shen guessed that he didn't wanted to talk about it. But the prince couldn't help it but to feel curious: maybe he wasn't the only one that held a grudge towards his cousin...

* * *

><p>For the next days, Shen demonstrated to be very skilled at Cai Li Fo, which pleased Renshu. Although he was weaker than the average peafowl, his will to become a master was so strong that it vastly compensated for this; the boy used all of his time for training, even when he would tell him to rest for a while, Shen would continue to train with undying energy, alongside with Tai.<p>

Master Rhino had warned him that the young prince was very shy and could be a little reluctant to interact with the other students but the two princes seemed to be ingratiating quite well.

As a matter of fact, the pheasant had became Shen's first true friend. It was different to the soothsayer, who was his Nana and was much older than him, and to the pups of the wolf guards, who always treated him with almost fearful caution; with Tai, they were equals.

But apart from him and master Renshu, young Shen didn't talked to the other students: masters Ling and Daiyu were kind to him, but were also a little intimidating; Gui was obnoxious to the young students most of the time, but he was especially rude with Shen, he had always despised the white chick and had never tried to hide it; he and Qiao hated each other and refused to even look at each other, besides, they hardly met once a day, since the blue peacock had enhanced his training since Shen had arrived; and princess Jingfei seemed determined to act as if he wasn't there, acting like most of the noble kids that he'd had the misfortune to meet during his short life.

One morning, Shen was training alone in the forest (master Renshu had began sending him there about a week after his arrival), master had told him to practice swinging the staff between the bamboo trees, to improve his accuracy.

This he understood, but once in the forest, he realized that it was so dense that there was hardly any room to walk, let alone fighting: the straight trees grew so close to each other that the only thing that he could do was standing there holding his staff like an idiot, and the leaves were everywhere, how was he supposed to train if he couldn't see a thing between the sea of green? And how did the others managed to do it? He had to try...

Shen attempted to adopt a fighting stance, but the staff got stuck with the branches. Try again, the trees behind him prevented him to do it. Similar results were obtained from the following attempts, if only Tai was there...

No! he said innerly, he couldn't be relying on others to show him the way out of his problems, not if he was going to earn his parents' respect and one day rule Gongmen city.

He took a couple of deep breaths and focused on his surroundings. After he'd formed a mental image of them, he planned his move, not moving at all, just like master Ling. He counted to three and started: One hit between the two trees in front of him, one backwards, spin the staff to release it and end with a vertical sweep to his right, but the weapon tangled with the branches. There was the trick, it had been slower than his usual moves and he had still failed but he was getting better. He was about to try again when he heard a hissing and a loud noise of something hitting wood. He looked at the direction from which the sound had came, intrigued, and went to investigate.

Master Daiyu was standing in a small clearing, in a fighting pose, although she wasn't holding any weapon. Of course Cai Li Fo could be used unarmed, but it wasn't nearly as efficient as it's version with weapons.

Suddenly, the peahen made a short move with her left wing and a knife left her sleeve with the speed of an arrow and sank deeply in a bamboo tree, producing the same noise that Shen had heard a moment ago.

The chick had found the master and was watching her training. She kept launching knives, each of them hit the division between a tree's phalanges with such strength that they sank more than half of their length within the wood.

Shen was astonished: such skill wasn't normal, it had to be a spell, although he wasn't sure that those things really existed. But what other explanation was left... The speed, the accuracy, the strength...

"Hello" asked a gentle voice. He had been so focused in his own thoughts that he hadn't realized that Daiyu had noticed him. He stood straight and inclined his head respectfully

"Good morning, master" he said, looking at the floor to avoid her eyes, expecting her to send him away at any second he added "I didn't mean to spy on you, I'm sorry for interrupting your training"

"It's alright, don't worry" there wasn't reproach in her voice "What were you doing here?"

"I was training when I heard the sound of the knives and came here to see what it was. Your technique is impressive, master"

"Well, thank you" she answered with a flattered smile

"How did you do it? I mean, that was like magic..." She burst into laughter

"It's not magic" she said "It's just practice... Would you like me to teach you?"

"Really? To throw knives like you?"

She nodded

"Yeah!"

The peahen gave him a knife and let he examine it before starting. It was a single piece of metal, it was silver and it had no markings; both edges were razor sharp and it had a small dull extension to hold it at one of it's ends. The total length of the weapon should round the ten inches and it was surprisingly light.

Daiyu taught him the proper way to hold and aim it. She was very kind an patient, the peahen never rose her tone when Shen did something wrong and kept encouraging him to try again despite he hadn't managed to hit the target (a blue silk tissue tied to a branch about seven meters away) even once. It was the chick the one who lost his patience first:

"This isn't working" he said, putting down the knife after missing for the tenth time "I'm sorry, master Daiyu, I wasted your time..."

She walked to him and he handed her the weapon, however, she didn't accepted it

"Keep it..." she said "... As I said, it is just a matter of practice, do you think that I reached my current level in just one day?"

She gave him two more knives.

"Don't give up, Shen, I see a lot of potential in you, and so does master Renshu"

"Do you really think I can make it?" asked Shen

"Yes, I do" she answered "However, you should resume your training with the staff and I should resume mine, or else master Renshu will scold both of us"

And so, young Shen added the knife throwing routine to the Cai Li Fo training. He soon discovered that practicing with the knives improved his aim and reflexes, making it easier to handle the staff. Daiyu had taught him everything he needed to know to train by himself and when she met him in the clearing to survey his progress she was pleased at what she saw: The chick's skill grew by the day, he was now able to hit a target from fifteen meters away, and the peahen discovered that he could throw knives with both wings with equal precision, he was ambidextrous.

Both she and Renshu were pleased by the boy's progress, they knew that he would become a powerful warrior one day...


	8. Interlude III

The white emperor

Interlude III

The small bird ducked to dodge the sweep with the wooden staff and jumped towards his opponent, swinging his own weapon, a wooden sword, at his chest, but the white peacock deflected it and brusquely opened his fan tail. The wind generated by this unbalanced the pheasant, almost throwing him off his feet. The peacock took advantage of the momentum and swung the staff at his feet, but the opponent stuck his sword on the ground, interposing it between his body and the other weapon and leaned on it to recover his stance. Shen thrusted his staff forward and Tai jumped on it and began to ran across the shaft, straight at his face. Just before he had reached him, the peacock threw the staff away and whirled over himself, waving his train to reject the pheasant, who was sent flying away and landed on his feet. Then he put his hands together and inclined his head as Shen did the same, officially ending the fight.

"You have improved a lot during the last years, Shen" granted Tai as they climbed off the stone platform.

"It's a shame that I can't say the same about you" mocked Shen

"Ouch! My pride!" laughed the pheasant.

Almost five years had elapsed since Shen's arrival to the school and a lot had happened since that. Tai remembered the weak looking chick that he had watched being beaten almost unconscious by Qiao and that he later helped to begin to understand Cai Li Fo; it offered a loud contrast with his present self: Shen had grown taller, when they first met, they were about the same height, now, when the peacock lifted his head, his height tripled the pheasant's; he had also developed a long train (which had grown much faster than expected and now matched Qiao's in length) and a crest, both of them exhibited a pattern of crimson eyes (Daiyu had mentioned that they looked good on him the first time she saw them and Tai could swear that his chest had been puffed out for the rest of that day). And he was stronger now, _much_ stronger. He and Tai were even, Shen had progressed incredibly fast, but the pheasant knew, by dint of knowing him for half a decade, that he wasn't satisfied, it wasn't Tai the one that the peacock wanted to surpass... The change wasn't only physical: Shen had grown more self confident and he had also became a little arrogant and obsessed with becoming the best, which resulted annoying sometimes. But that flaw wasn't exclusive of him, thought the pheasant, looking at Jingfei, who had occupied the platform to train with her jian.

"Do you think we have any chance of winning the competition?" asked Shen

"I do... You... I don't think so"

Shen punched him in the shoulder

"You wouldn't be able to even hold the prize properly" he said with pretended despise

"And you would? Ha! Such a fine weapon deserves to be handled by someone who knows how to use it" answered Tai sarcastically "And that would be me"

"I'll grant you the part of the fine weapon" looking at the halberd that stood proudly in the edge of the platform.

Two months ago, Renshu had gathered all of his students at the platform and had fixed the weapon between the stone tiles, announcing that all of them had learned everything they needed to know and that there would be a competition, which would take place in three months from there. The halberd would be given to the winner, the Yín yè spear, he had called it. It was one of the school's most valuable relics and the student who remained undefeated would be entitled with it's protection.

The two birds looked at it with fascinated eyes. From what Shen had read, the blade was made of a rare metal, stronger than the best japanese steel and yet light as a feather. It's edges curved symmetrically four times before ending in a pointy sting and they had remained sharp with no need of maintenance for the four hundred years that it could be tracked back in time. And the shaft was made with the wood of an extinct tree, which was incredibly hard and resistant to corrosion. This made the Yín yè a superb and an irreplaceable weapon, and Shen _wanted_ it, not only because of it's background story, but also because of what it represented: it's owner superiority. He wanted to earn it, and to earn it rightfully, that way he would prove...

"Tai" said Shen

"What?"

"I'd like to ask you that when we face each other at the competition, use all of your strength, don't hold back" the pheasant looked at him, piercing him with his golden gaze

"Will you do it?" asked the peacock in a serious tone, holding his look

"Only if you do it as well"

"Thank you"

Qiao had entered to the platform and was training alongside Jingfei. When he saw him, Shen's expression turned into a mask of stone, only his eyes showed some sign of life, they were burning with hatred, Tai could almost feel their heat. The blue peacock felt his stare and stopped training to bow to him, with a petulant smile. This made Shen's eyes to narrow and the corners of his beak tense. It was of common knowledge in the school how much the white peacock was _aching_ to fight his cousin, he was desperate to defeat him. That had been his only goal since the day of their second encounter...

* * *

><p><em>Two years ago<em>

The clouds, darker than usual, announced the rain that would soon unleash over the forest. There was no wind and the river was the only thing that could be heard in the deserted clearing. Although it wasn't deserted: There was a white bird, standing in the middle of the stone platform with his eyes closed and holding a wooden staff.

Shen took a deep breath, mentally counted to three, and began with a dance, similar to the one he had watched master Ling perform in that same platform three years ago: agile swings of the staff and swift kicks deployed to imaginary foes along with elegant turnings of his body to display his fan and use it as a fifth limb and a weapon in combat. But he had made his own addition to the dance: a volley of knives left his sleeves and hit several dummies and targets placed around the platform. Master Daiyu could throw a knife in the middle of a close range fight, yes, but she couldn't do both things at the same time. Shen had managed to incorporate the knives into the dance, he could throw a quick succession of blades with both wings at the same time, and he had also learned to do it with his train.

He finished the routine holding the staff in an horizontal position in front of his face and his fan proudly opened.

"Bravo!" said a wry voice behind him: Qiao was watching him from the bridge, Shen tried to ignore him and resumed his training

"I see that you have been working hard, little cousin" said the blue peacock, walking forward and entering the platform.

"Do you think that you'd be able to put up a better fight than the one you did before?" there was despise hidden in his playful tone, he was mocking him, reminding him of when he was weak. Well, that was the past...

"You wouldn't have it that easy nowadays" he said coldly

"Is that so?" asked Qiao with an amused snort "Then why don't we find out? What do you say?"

He grabbed one of the staffs that were lying at the edge of the platform and walked in front of Shen

"Would you like a rematch?" he taunted

"Very well" accepted Shen "We'll see how well does that beak of yours handle another kick"

His cousin's grin was still there but his eyes had narrowed and his crest had flattened at his taunt. They both assumed a combat stance.

Shen attacked first. He launched a frontal thrust to his cousin's throat, which the blue peacock deflected with insulting ease, and used the same movement to whip his face with the tip of his staff.

"Is that everything you have achieved during the last three years" he asked as Shen rubbed his sore cheek "Quite disappointing..."

Shen attempted to trip him with his tail, but Qiao jumped, avoiding the white feathers, and hit Shen's arm when he was turning around

"Oh, my! You can't even use your train properly, is it too heavy for you?" mocked the blue peacock. Until now he hadn't made a serious attack, he had limited to dodge and give light hits, he was playing with him.

"I would like to let something clear, Shen" said Qiao "You can't compare to me, you are _nothing_ and it was pure luck that you managed to touch me, and I'm going to prove it right now"

Said this he lunged at Shen and unleashed a series of strikes upon him. The white peacock tried his best to reject them, although he was overwhelmed by his cousin's speed and strength. He managed to block one... two... three strikes until he received a lighting hit right in the face. He almost fell back, covering his face with one wing and with Qiao's laughter drilling in his ears.

"Do you understand now?" he asked "You are weak, little ghost, you shouldn't had come to this school... As a matter of fact, you shouldn't had come to this _world_!"

Shen looked at him between his fingers, feeling the rage flooding his entrails...

"You are a disgrace to the peacocks, Shen, your parents are ashamed of you, I know that for a _fact_!"

"SHUT UP!" yelled Shen, and lunged at him.

The white peacock attacked with all his strength, not caring at all if he was hit, he lived to hurt his cousin. Qiao blocked his first strike, and Shen tried to trip him with his tail again, and again his cousin dodged it and hit him, but he was prepared this time. He protected his back, holding the staff over his shoulder with one wing and with the other he threw a knife, straight at his cousin's neck, forgetting that it was a spare fight, not caring about the consequences at all; the only thing that mattered was producing Qiao the greatest harm possible, and from that distance he couldn't fail...

The knife sank deeply into Qiao's staff. He had blocked it, from less than a meter away, he had blocked his strike; only then could Shen see the huge void between their levels.

"That hag's tricks won't help you, Shen" said the blue peacock seriously "I think you've got the message. We can end this now..."

And he _disappeared_! It took Shen a second to realize that his cousin had somehow moved behind him, and he tried to turn around to defend himself, but Qiao was standing on his train, preventing him of moving. And then Shen felt that something hit him between his shoulders with the strength of a hammer, leaving him out of air and making him drop the staff. He couldn't breath, his legs stopped responding and he fell to the ground...

"Let this serve you as a lesson" said Qiao, watching him pant in the floor "You can't compare to me, no matter how hard you train, I will _always_ be better than you"

He lowered his head to say something to his ear

"You will _never_ again disrespect me, is that clear?" he said with a menacing tone, before lifting his head again.

"Very well, little ghost, there's only one thing left to do..."

He stood next to Shen's train, and began browsing his feathers until he found the longest one. He firmly gripped it with his talons and, without the white peacock being able to do anything to stop him, he plucked it out brusquely.

"I'll be keeping this, if you don't mind" he waved the feather in front of it's owner's face. Shen couldn't move or speak, just lay there, panting and watching his cousin delight with his misery

"It will serve as a reminder of our little talk, for you and for everyone else... It will represent the time when I showed you that you are less than nothing"

And he left, leaving him panting against the stone floor...

The humiliation received from his cousin encouraged Shen to train harder than ever. He would spend hours and sometimes even the entire day training at the platform and the forest. He slept a little more than four hours a day and ate almost nothing. This strict regime caused him to loose weight and regain the sickly appearance that he'd had as a child. So big was his obsession that he stopped talking to others... Tai, Renshu and Daiyu were now distant shadows in his mind. All of his thoughts were now focused on defeating Qiao. He would persevere and ignore his pain, which grew bigger with every day of endless training. He would also ignore the weather, no matter how cold or wet it could get, the white peacock would stay in the forest, swinging his staff under the rain, and it was in the forest where master Ling found his unconscious body.

For once, Shen had been lucky that his body was white, otherwise Ling would have passed besides him without noticing him in the dark of the late afternoon. The blue peacock noticed that his breath was shallow and that his eyes were moving rapidly under his eyelids.

Daiyu was meditating in front of the house when she saw Ling coming out from the wood, which was odd, since he had intended to stay there until past midnight. And then she saw the white burden he was carrying in his back and rushed to meet them with her heart on a fist.

"What happened?" she asked

"I don't know, I found him in the middle of the forest, he was already unconscious there and he is burning with fever" he answered "I'll get him inside, you go get master Renshu"

The green peacock was a skilled physician, that she knew, but despite of his reassuring words Daiyu couldn't leave Shen's door as she waited for the master to come out. He had made her stay outside, so that he could treat the sick bird without _distractions_, he had claimed.

By now, everyone in the building had been informed of the situation and were waiting in the corridor, although some of them in a different attitude than the others: Ling and Tai seemed to be as nervous as her, the peacock was playing with his thumbs and the pheasant was walking up and down the hallway; Jingfei and Gui looked like if they were there against their will, but Qiao... He was smiling and not making any effort to conceal it: The entire situation made him happy!

Daiyu was repulsed at this and had to fight the urge to take one of her knives and slash that brat's throat.

Everything was blurred, he was in a dark place, he tried to say something, but his throat appeared to have been rubbed with sandpaper, and the only sound that he managed to emit was a pain filled moan, this made his chest erupt in a series of convulsive, dry coughs. A green shape appeared in front of him.

"How are you feeling, Shen?" the question echoed in his brain as if it had been pronounced from a mile away. Shen blinked to clear his vision, and saw master Renshu.

He was in his room, lying in his bed, half dead again, just like the first day, as if nothing had changed

"Can you talk?" asked the green peacock. Shen shook his head

"Fine, it will be better if I do the talking and you do the listening" said the master "You have pneumonia"

Oh! So _it_ was striking again, great, the dying chick was still there. Part of this thought must had been showed by his face, because master Renshu frowned and said

"It is nothing to be ashamed of, kid, it isn't a sign of weakness, and it wasn't your fault, although..." his face adopted a severe expression "You were reckless, you've been ignoring the signs of your body and it could have killed you, as a matter of fact you would be dead right now if master Ling hadn't found you in the forest"

Shen looked to the roof to avoid the brown reproachful eyes, but he couldn't block the words...

"I have been observing you the last days, you barely eat or sleep, you are always training, you are pushing yourself too hard..."

Too hard _for him_. Thought Shen, cursing his weak body. Of course master Renshu didn't knew about his fight with Qiao, his cousin had stored the feather safely in his room and was confident that the white peacock wouldn't say anything.

"You'll be fine, but you have to rest for some days" the master was saying. He had picked up his gear and was walking to the door.

"The others are wishing to see you, do you want them to come in?"

Shen nodded, weakly.

"Alright, but just a moment"

A few seconds after he left, the door opened again and Daiyu, Tai and Ling entered the room

"Oh, thank the gods that you are alright, we were so worried!" said Daiyu, running next to him and grabbing his wing between hers.

That was the first time that so much people truly worried about him when he was ill. It was different than the physicians' professional worry, and his parents' "mandatory" worry; before now, the soothsayer was the only one to worry about him as a loved one.

This filled him with gratitude and he gave them a tired smile, which died when he looked over Daiyu's shoulder: Qiao was standing at the door, with the same mocking expression...

"Now, now, look at you" he said "Poor cousin, you shouldn't have tried so hard, you know, given your _condition_..."

Tai and Ling were giving him identical unfriendly expressions and Shen was pure hatred. But Daiyu was out of herself, she was looking at him with her eyes narrowed and grinding her beak. Her entire body tensed and she seemed to be about to stand up, but Ling pressed her shoulder with his wing.

"You shouldn't expect that much of yourself, Shen, you'll hurt yourself, and remember that it's _futile_..." after saying this, he left, and Shen swore to himself that he would prove him wrong, even if he had to spend the rest of his life in that school...

* * *

><p>They looked at each other's eyes, with heir weapons raised. None of the birds that were standing at the edges of the platform made the slightest move or or noise. Master Renshu was standing between Ling and Daiyu, who weren't participating in the competition. Gui had left a year ago and thus there were only four contestants: Qiao, Jingfei, Tai and Shen. The last two were fighting now, and the victor would face Qiao, who had defeated Jingfei in the previous combat, and fight for the ancient spear...<p>

The white peacock and the pheasant stepped forward at the same time and met at the center of the platform, both of them executing a series of strikes that made the air hiss, which the other dodged or blocked without falling back.

The master was pleased at how much all his students had improved, the level of skill that they had achieved indicated without a doubt that he had succeeded as a teacher; and he felt proud, not of himself but of his disciples, who were now giving their best...

The first one to land a blow was Tai: with a leap he leveled his small body with Shen's face and gave him a sidekick. The peacock turned around and used his train to break his fall, making him hit the ground with his back. Tai blocked the strike that followed and was up on his feet in less than a second, attacking Shen with a sweep to the neck, which he blocked, before giving a step backwards.

They looked at each other for a second before Shen lunged at him again. Tai assumed a defensive stance, ready to reject him.

They were even, Tai knew that, and he wanted to win the halberd as bad as Shen did: He had worked very hard for the last seven years. The spear was now within his reach, it could be his... But Shen had trained harder than him, and had achieved more in less time. And the white peacock was the one with greater possibilities of defeating Qiao, despite how much it hurt to admit it. Besides, Shen had unfinished issues with his cousin. Tai understood that he couldn't deny him the chance to fight the blue peacock and be free of his grudge, and resigned to give up his dream to grant peace to his friend.

The strike was coming from above, Tai raised his staff, and in the last moment opened his defense, making it look as if he was trying to counter Shen's attack, and praised himself for the upcoming defeat...

He could almost hear his bones shattering when the staff struck his shoulder. The strength of the hit sent him away, and the pheasant fell on his back, grabbing his left arm, from which an excruciating pain had risen.

Master Renshu rushed to go in his aid, but Shen was the first one to arrive at his side

"Tai!" the peacock kneeled in front of his friend, casting his staff away "I'm so sorry! Oh, gods, your wing! I didn't mean to..."

Renshu had arrived and was inspecting the pheasant's injured wing with a worried expression

"Don't worry, Shen" said the golden bird "_You_ were the one meant to -GAHHH!" he launched a pain scream when the green peacock touched his wing, his breathing fastened and he grabbed one of Shen's sleeves with his good limb.

"Win the halberd" he said "that's all I ask you, win the halberd and you'll owe me _nothing_"

His grip loosened as he fell unconscious.

Tai had broken his promise. He had let him win and now he was going to return home empty handed and with a wound that would disable him for the rest of his life, only to let him face his cousin once more...

The collision of the staffs echoed trough the clearing. After providing first aid to Tai, the contest had been resumed; there was only one fight left.

Qiao was confident on his victory; he could already picture himself holding the spear, presenting it to his father... He had observed his cousin and had decided that he had nothing to worry about as the albino was not a worthy adversary for him, but since that was going to be their last fight, the blue peacock decided to use it to refresh his memory.

After blocking an attack, he tried to slightly hit Shen in the face, just as he had done two years ago, but the insulting attack was rejected with a slight turn of his cousin's weapon and a response was aimed at his head.

Qiao ducked right in time, but yet he felt his crest waving by the strike's trail. That had been way too close. The blue peacock decided to stop playing and go forth with all his might, that would show the old man the perfection that he had achieved.

A fast succession of strikes attempted to reach Shen, but, much to Qiao's astonishment, he managed to deflect all of them. Without flinching by this, he made a fast turn to trip him with his fan, but the white peacock jumped and whirled in mid air, hitting Qiao's face with his own tail and making him step back.

Now the blue peacock was getting nervous, his cousin was doing better than he'd expected, well, that wouldn't last long: he made a wide arch movement, attacking from the left, and as expected, Shen interposed his guard to block the strike, but at the last moment, Qiao changed the position of his hands and swung his staff in the opposite way, hitting from the right. And he hit. The staff impacted the base of Shen's long neck.

The white peacock took a hand to the place he'd been hit and fell to his knees. Qiao took advantage of the momentum and launched a slash to the back of his neck, already seeing his victory. But suddenly, Shen disappeared behind his white fan and seventy crimson eyes fixed their frightening look on Qiao, who froze at the breath-taking display. The shock prevented him from reacting in time when Shen's staff emerged between the long feathers and stabbed his chest.

The blue peacock drew back coughing as the white fan shut close and Shen lunged at him while swinging his staff around his body.

Qiao was holding his ribs with one hand and failed to fight his cousin off; with a single hit the albino broke his defense and using the same impulse he hit the side of his head. He attempted to counter him but when he looked up he saw that Shen had banished. No, he was standing next to him, and without giving him time to react, his white train hit the back of his ankles, lifting him from the ground.

The collision with the floor emptied his lungs and in no time the sky was blocked by the form of Shen, who had jumped over him, stepping on his chest with one leg and on his right wing with the other.

Qiao attempted to throw him off, but Shen immobilized his remaining arm by painfully pressing it against the stone floor with the tip of his staff.

The blue peacock felt his weapon being taken away from his hands and saw his cousin swinging it over his head with the tip of his wing, ready to land the final blow.

His cousin was at his mercy. He had defeated him in a fair fight, the promise that he'd made to himself had been fulfilled.

But even now that he had proved his supremacy, Shen wasn't satisfied, he wanted _revenge_...

His cousin had looked down on him, humiliated him, tried to break his spirit, it was time to repay him with the same coin...

Shen had won, that was clear, then why hadn't he stopped? He was swinging Qiao's weapon as he kept his cousin immobilized under him. Renshu stood up, ready to intervene if needed, and a second later he discovered that it _was_ needed: Shen made a wide circular move with his arm, swinging the staff with frightening strength, aiming at Qiao's face.

That move was executed with lethal force, intended not for harming, but for killing. It would impact his head so hard that his skull would crack open and his brain would spatter several meters away. The blue peacock's eyes widened in fear as the wooden piece came closer to his face. Time seemed to slow down for the last seconds...

But death never came, in a second Shen was about to behead his cousin and in the next he was holding a shortened staff; one half of the weapon had been cut off and sent flying away. Looking for the responsible of this he saw Renshu standing next to him, holding the Yín yè spear.

"That's enough, Shen" he said with a tense voice. The white peacock looked at him and the other birds. Jingfei had a terrified expression, Daiyu and Ling had also entered the platform and were standing behind Renshu.

Without a word, the green peacock offered him the ancient halberd, there was a warning bright in his eyes.

Shen took the weapon and felt it's weight, it's balance, it was perfect, almost god-like. No one was saying anything...

The white peacock turned around to face Qiao; his cousin was still laying on the floor, shocked by his near death. Shen showed him the halberd and spoke with the same tone his cousin had used two years ago "Do you see this weapon, Qiao?" he asked "It is _mine_..."

"Shen" warned Renshu

"You can keep the feather..." Shen ignored the master "It will serve as a reminder of the time that you were defeated by _nothing_..."

* * *

><p>The gates of the throne room opened and the pale figure entered the large room, it took the couple of peafowl almost five seconds to recognize him.<p>

"Shen!" said the peahen and ran to meet him, with her husband right behind her.

"Mother, father" said the youngest bird a second before his mother trapped him in a tight embrace, with her shoulders shivering with silent sobs. Once she'd left go of him, Shen bowed to his father and offered him the spear, that was wrapped in silk.

"I have completed my training, father" he said "I have brought the Yín yè spear with me as a token of my skill"

"It's good to hear that, son" answered Jian Yu in an affectionate, yet formal tone.

"Shen? Is that you?" asked a grave voice; the soothsayer had just entered the room "You're back!"

"Hello, soothsayer" said Shen, no longer using the childish Nana

The goat noticed that he had changed: He was an adult, his magnificent train was the proof, but there was something else. As he answered his parents' questions, the soothsayer noticed that his attitude wasn't that of a scared child anymore, he had hardened, he now rose his head to talk to his father and held his look proudly. The little chick that she had raised had turned into a prince, and without having to look at his bowl, she had the certainty that he would do great deeds for Gongmen city...


	9. Assertiveness

The white emperor

Chapter VI - Assertiveness

"There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination"  
>Mencius<p>

Lord Qiao looked at the sunset trough the window of his office and sighed.

He was close, his cousin's weapon was almost at his reach, a little more and he would become the most powerful man the world would ever see, but for the first time he was considering what would it cost him...

No, he didn't regret torturing lord Shen (hell, his pain screams were like music to the blue peacock's ears), or having his men killed or disfigured in a terrible accident, he didn't even regret murdering the soothsayer. What he regretted was that he was driving his family away from him, all because of his lust for power, a power that could only be used to bring death. He had never cared about it, but, was it right?

"Qiao" he felt his spirit lighten up as he turned to look at Xiu, who was standing at the door, but the smile he was about to show died before reaching his beak, the peahen's eyes showed clearly what she thought about him...

"Wen is fine, the physician said that he will wake up in a few hours..." said his wife with a neutral tone "... But he will have scars for the rest of his life"

There was no reproach in her voice, but she was drilling him with an accusing stare.

Lady Xiu's attitude towards him had been like this since the moment she'd learned that he had killed the soothsayer. She hadn't spoken a word about the matter, instead, she had maintained a cordial behavior, she had even continued to share his bed. But every trace of affection had been withdrawn and substituted by that emotionless tone and the accusing eyes. He had to stop it... Talk to her... Try to explain...

Explain what? What could he say? More lies maybe? Lord Qiao was so immerse in his thoughts that he almost forgot about his wife being there and only noticed the peahen when she was about to leave the room.

"Xiu, wait!" he said, desperate "I want to talk with you!"

She stopped at the door and looked at him, expecting.

"I... I killed the soothsayer, yes, but you know that I've done it before; tens, maybe hundreds of men and women have died by my steel. You know that I have no choice but to do it sometimes..."

"I know, Qiao" interrupted Xiu "I have also slain many persons, and I do not regret it, but there's a difference between killing an enemy soldier in a battlefield, a rival in a duel or a criminal in an execution and killing an innocent old woman for your own benefit or just to harm your enemy" She had slightly raised her voice near the end of her speech, she had also frowned a little and her crest had lowered some degrees as well.

"You don't understand! It was her wish! She told me to do so!" replied Qiao

"If she wanted to commit suicide she would have done it herself instead of turning you into a murderer of innocents" Her words were pure acid now, the name _murderer of innocents_ pierced his chest like an ice knife. Her voice was even louder and her neck feathers were fluffed out. The conversation was definitely not headed in the best direction.

"She didn't want to commit suicide! She foresaw Shen's return and determined that only if I killed her I would be able to defeat him"

"And since when do you believe in foretelling badly enough to kill someone?" inquired Xiu "Since when do you behave like Shen?"

Qiao opened his beak to say something but he couldn't build an understandable phrase.

"He would have killed us!" that wasn't even an argument, the peacock mentally kicked himself after saying it; he was mumbling like a child trying to avoid his punishment "Look, he is stronger than me, I recognize that, if it hadn't been for you and Shu I would have been defeated without a doubt. The soothsayer predicted his return, and at first I didn't believe her, but then he killed some of the guards out of the city and the goat was proven right! I... I began listening to her after that, and she said that the only way I could win the duel was..."

"Not relying on the dozens of warriors that were waiting for your call to come in your aid?"

"I did!"

"Oh, please! Eight guards?" spat Xiu "I'm talking about the well trained warriors that could have easily overwhelmed him. No peacock, no matter how strong he is, can stand a long fight against a troop of boars... But you didn't want that, did you?"

Qiao looked at her, not understanding

"Because they would have killed him, and you needed him alive... Oh, yes..." she said "I know about the weapons that Wen was analyzing, you need Shen to learn how to reproduce them... You want to become a monster, just like him" her voice was poisoned with despise towards him.

"You have no idea!" screamed Qiao, enraged "That weapon is what will save Yan! I've seen my home devastated by years of war since I was born! There is a constant threat of an invasion from every corner of the map! My father couldn't end it, his father couldn't; but I will, no matter the cost! If I have to use my cousin's weapon or kill a few people to do it, so be it!"

Xiu didn't answer, she was paralyzed by the fervent glow that had taken over her husband's face. Somehow she knew that that was the first time that he had expressed exactly what he thought and felt...

* * *

><p>Lord Shen had been motionlessly sitting in the cold stone floor for most of the day, which puzzled the guards. One of them had suggested that he might be exhibiting the same behavior that some prisoners developed with time: Worn out by the stress, they would stop eating, drinking, sleeping, just lay there and wait for the end...<p>

But this was not the case; the boar in charge of feeding him had passed the food bowl between the metal bars, with the white peacock ignoring him completely. The guard had returned a few minutes later, expecting to find the food untouched, but had found a perfectly clean bowl, and he had noticed that the bird's face wasn't showing agony or indifference, but an incredibly deep concentration.

Shen had been planning his next moves since the moment Shu had left the prison. His mind was working relentlessly, formulating strategies, considering obstacles and eventualities, remembering and analyzing all his past mistakes, learning everything he'd done wrong, so that they wouldn't repeat.

The first step was escaping the prison, if Qiao's daughter had said the truth, that part was already done, but he should be prepared for the event that she didn't show up. In that case he would trick one of the guards into the cell, kill him with the stolen knife and take his weapons. If he was careful he would be able to escape without having to face the guards, but this was a slim possibility. If one of the boars gave the alarm he would have to engage in a long fight with probably all the guards from the palace.

Shen moved his injured wing and the pain almost made him squeal. He wasn't going to be able to fight for a few days, the best thing to do was hoping the young peahen to take him out of there.

And he also had to rebuild his army. The fact that Jian hadn't came could only mean that the wolves had completely forsaken him. He would have to rely on mercenaries, but all his money had been taken and used for "public works", of course that was the way Qiao referred to his personal fortune. But it would soon be revealed if his cousin valued his gold more than he valued his daughter's life.

Once they were out of the palace he would kidnap her and leave the province. Stealing a boat was a tempting option, they would sail to the Qing province, which Shen knew had a bad relationship with Yan, and therefore with his cousin. As a matter of fact, Qing was also at war with Korea and Mongolia. For a long time, Gongmen had been it's only ally, helping it economically and militarily, but now that was no more. The Qing lord would probably provide him shelter, his weapon would grant him his friendship.

But that meant he would have to share his secrets, and there was a big possibility that the lord could betray him, after all, he still didn't know his potential ally.

The kung fu masters would be a problem as well, especially the furious five and the dragon warrior; for now, he had the advantage that they thought that he was dead, but it was only matter of time... Qiao could send a message to the Valley of Peace at any moment, or the rumor could spread by the guards... Their intervention could not frustrate his plans like the last time...

It was going to be harder than the previous attempt, he couldn't waste another thirty years hiding in the mountains.

Anyone else would have given up, overwhelmed by the amount of factors against, but not Shen, instead of feeling discouraged, his determination grew every time a new obstacle came into consideration. His chest was tickling with excitement... This time he would do it, there wouldn't be any mistakes...

* * *

><p>The city was in sight. The group of wolves had returned over their steps as fast as they could, almost fifteen hours had passed since their change of plans and now they were resting, hidden in a small forest to avoid detection by the guards on the towers that delimited the city.<p>

As the canes retrieved their strengths, the leaders had withdrawn to a small tent to plan their strategy.

"How many men do we have?" asked Chao.

"One hundred and sixteen" answered a big gray male, named Huïsè "I designated some to protect the pups and the mothers, I've instructed them to leave the province if we don't return"

"Good, what about the weapons?"

A female named Mei spoke

"We have sixty two swords and thirty four bows, sir"

"How many arrows?"

"One hundred and fifty seven"

They were short in weapons, this realization darkened everyone's faces, but nobody said anything about it.

"Jian, how many soldiers are there in the city?"

"A complete battalion, I'd say that more than four hundred boars, maybe five..." said the young female. Chao nodded.

"And you say that all the entrances are being watched... What do you know about that?"

"Most of the guards are concentrated in the main accesses, the secondary ones, like the one lord Shen used to enter the city, are watched by small groups, less than five men"

"And the reliefs?"

"The watches are renewed at intervals of about five hours"

Chao kept silent for a moment, considering all the factors, until he finally decided his strategy

"Very well, this is how we're doing it, hand over the map" he extended a map of Gongmen city on the wooden crate they were using as a table "We're now about a mile north west from the city, so we should use the same access that lord Shen used" he pointed it on the map "... However, we're going to split into two groups, one of which will enter trough this point..." he was indicating another access, at the west edge of the city.

"But they are too far, Chao" interrupted Huïsè "We will be too disperse and won't reach the palace at the same time..."

"That's because we need a distraction" answered the black wolf "The larger group will enter from the west and engage the boars, this will draw all the attention at that point. Meanwhile, the group that enter trough the north will raid the Lǜ yīn tower, where lord Shen is most likely being held captive, dispatch the remaining guards and rescue him..."

"Very well, that leaves only the exit strategy" said the gray wolf

"Yes, the group that rescue Lord Shen will send a signal when he's been safely taken out of the city. At that moment, the other group will disband and flee trough the roofs. The boars won't be able to keep up with us there. They should escape trough the forest at the south west edge of the city, to completely loose Qiao's men. This forest will be our meeting place, after we have reunited, we will take the route to Yu, understood?"

Everyone nodded

"Perfect, now, I will lead one the distraction group, Huïsè..."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll cover your fur, don't worry"

"Mei and Kang, you will handle the rescue" the female and a young brown male nodded

"And what about me?!" asked Jian, alarmed

"What about you?" asked back Chao "You're too young to assume leadership duties, and you were allowed in here only because you have information about the city"

The young she-wolf was going to talk back but Mei prevented her from doing it.

"Don't worry, kid" she said, passing her arm around Jian's shoulders "You sill get to come with us"

The wolves spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for the incursion. The four captains formed their groups (Kang and Mei had twenty wolves under their orders, including Jian, the rest would be commanded by Chao and Huïsè), and the weapons were distributed, prioritizing the group that was going to fight the most. The wolves had crafted several wooden spears to somehow compensate for their lack of swords.

All the faces showed expectation, the wolves were eager for the night, when they would make their move. It was highly probable that they would fail miserably, and most of them wouldn't see the next day, but Jian had opened their eyes: That was the life they had chosen, and if there was a good way to die, it was that one, in battle, fighting for lord Shen...

* * *

><p>"Follow me" whispered Chao. The two wolves went after him, unsheathing their swords. Soundlessly, they reached the outpost, from it's windows emerged a trembling orange light and the voices of a small group of guards, Chao counted five different voices, but there could be more. With a gesture, he ordered his men to place at both sides of the door, ready to break in; and then, unsheathing his own blade, he knocked the door.<p>

The laughters inside didn't stopped and someone said "I'll get it", a moment later, a completely drunken boar opened the door

"What the hell do you..." he never got to complete his question. Chao stabbed him and stormed inside the little room, with the boar still impaled on his sword.

The rest of the guards looked at their partner slowly falling to the ground, and before they could grasp their weapons, the other two wolves entered the room, and in a few seconds everything was over. Too easy.

After waiting a few seconds to be sure that no more guards came, alarmed by the brief screams of the slain men, Chao opened the door and gave two short barks. A moment later, almost a hundred wolves emerged from the darkness.

"Nice job" said Huïsè, as a pair of wolves entered the outpost to get the guards' weapons "What now?"

"Now we should split and enter as deep as we can, then we will pretend to be raiders, that should be a convincing enough show" answered Chao.

The other group had already arrived to the Lǜ yīn tower, that served as a high security prison for political prisoners, such as lord Shen. They were resting on the ceiling of an adjacent building, which hid them from enemy eyes and at the same time allowed them a clear view of their objective.

A small group of soldiers was watching the tower's entrance. The wolves could have easily overwhelmed them, but a single scream was enough for a hundred of angry guards to swarm the place and slay them all. The purpose of the distraction was exactly to draw the reinforcements away, so that they could rescue the peacock without getting into a long fight.

"They are late" whispered Jian "What if they didn't make it to...?"

"Shhh" said Kang "Shut up, if they'd been detected we would already know, and besides, they _want_ to be detected"

"Alright, alright, I was just saying that we can't wait forever"

"Patience" said Mei.

And they waited. Five, ten, twenty minutes... They were consumed by their nerves, especially Jian, who was starting to get impatient. What was taking them so long?

"We have our bows, why don't we strike the guards from up here?"

"That would reveal our position and the boars would just lock themselves inside the tower until their reinforcements arrived" answered Mei "We must not act ahead of ourselves"

"And how do we know that the others haven't engaged the boars already?" asked Jian "Maybe the fight has already began and we're wasting time..."

"They will give us a signal when they start, of that you can be sure" said the older female.

"What kind of signal? We can't howl because then Qiao would suspect..."

At that moment Jian's words were blocked by a deafening explosion that enlightened the city, raising in a huge flame pillar several blocks south of their position.

"What the hell was that?!" asked one of the wolves.

"The signal!" answered Mei "Alright, everybody, get ready! Aim your bows at the guards and wait for my sign!"

Kang was also giving orders.

"Bo, Peng, Jian! With me! The rest of you, get ready to come after us once those guards are down!"

The wolf ran at the edge of the roof and jumped to the tower; he hit the wall and sank his claws between the stone bricks to get a firm grip. The guards were looking at the fire that stained the nocturnal skies of orange and didn't notice him or the other three wolves that jumped after him.

Moving like spiders, they positioned above the door, waiting to storm inside. Several citizens had left their houses or were peering at their windows to see what had caused the noise. Some of them spotted the four wolves hanging from the wall, it was a matter of seconds before the guards did it as well. Kang lifted his fist.

"Fire!" ordered Mei from the roof. The next second, the guards were reached by a small volley of arrows and the terrified civilians disbanded, screaming and covering their heads.

One of the guards had survived, he stood up, grabbing his left arm, that had been hit by an arrow, and ran to the tower, screaming for help. He was looking over his shoulder and he didn't see Kang dropping on him when he reached the door. The boar's skull was crushed by his foot.

More guards were coming out of the building, alarmed by the screams, wielding their weapons. Kang unsheathed his sword and heard his three underlings dropping behind him.

After a short skirmish, the four wolves defeated the boars. Kang was about to order them to continue, but Jian spoke ahead of him.

"Come on, we're almost there!" and she rushed up the stairs. The other two looked at their captain for a second, before following the young female.

The rest of his group was already climbing down the ceiling to join the fight, and Kang ordered some of them to stay at the door to stop anyone who tried to enter the tower. Mei's archers were going to assist them shooting from the other building.

Jian reached the second floor, were several guards were waiting to greet her. She blocked a strike from the nearest boar and head-butted him in the face, snatched his sword from his hoof and raced towards the next stair, at the opposite end of the room, tilting her body and crossing her two swords over her back to protect it from the potential strikes. Bo and Kang arrived in time to see her reach the stair and disappear towards the next floor, followed by some of the guards, while the rest of the pigs lunged at them.

Jian could hear the heavy steps of some guards after her, and another guard was waiting for her in the next landing. They were going to corner her, that wasn't good, she didn't have time for that.

She reached the landing and avoided the boar's ax, which crushed the wooden floor and got stuck, a moment later and that would had been her body. Without giving him time to retrieve his weapon, Jian kicked his stomach, and grabbing one of his tusks, she threw him down the stairs. His large body rolled downwards, striking the guards following her who weren't agile enough to dodge it. But she didn't stay to contemplate this, she was now near the third and last floor, where the prisoners were held.

Jian arrived at a large, circular room. The walls had several thick wooden doors. There were two guards there, both of them holding large and harmful looking hammers, but Jian wasn't deterred by that. Raising her swords and ruffling her fur, she growled at them.

"Release lord Shen" the pigs laughed at her menacing voice, Jian showed her fangs "and I'll spare your lives"

"Little doggies like you shouldn't bark so loud" mocked one of them "We'll have to teach you good manners..."

Heavy steps came from the stair, and a moment later three more guards arrived from the second floor and aimed their weapons at her.

Jian lunged at one of them, pushed his weapon aside with one of her swords and stroke his face with the other one, then ducked, just in time to avoid being beheaded by the boar at her right.

Another boar tripped her from behind with the handle of his hammer and she fell on her back. The wolf saw the roof, and a second later the head of the hammer falling on her. Rolling on her back she avoided death by a few inches, then, bending her back like a spring, she stood on her feet again.

Things weren't looking good, she was surrounded and getting tired, in her eagerness to find lord Shen she had parted from the other wolves...

A slash came from her right side; she bent at her waist and then jumped up, punching the boar's face with the hilt of her sword. Another guard lunged at her from behind, attempting to stab her back, but the wolf dodged him with an agile spin and thrusted one of her swords under his arm, avoiding his armor vest and reaching his chest.

The large pig fell, with Juan's sword sank so deep within his body that she couldn't pull it out and had to let it go.

When she turned to face the remaining guards, a hammer stroke ripped the other sword from her hand and made her entire arm go numb. She was disarmed now...

A huge fist impacted her stomach and she fell on her knees, coughing. She looked up and saw the soldier raising his hammer to finish her off...

Kang appeared out of nowhere and punched him in the side of the head, making him loose his stance, the other two wolves had also reached that floor and had already finished off the remaining soldiers; the last one didn't take long...

"Damn it, girl, this is not a race!" yelled the wolf as the young female stood up, shaking "Teamwork is our way to victory! Don't you ever forget about that!"

Bo and Peng were opening the cells, one by one, by destroying the doors' hinges with their swords. Jian was expecting to see the white peacock behind one of those doors, but when they opened the last one and found it empty, her entrails seemed to fill with ice.

"He's not here!" she said, not believing it.

"I can see that" hissed Kang "That's it, we're leaving!" he stated after a brief pause

"What?! Why? He might be somewhere else!" said Bo.

"We've been here for too long, and the city is huge, we don't have time to search every possible prison: Chao and his people can't hold forever..." the captain extracted a long object from his bag. It was a red light flare. Upon seeing it, Chao would know that they had finished their work and order his men to withdraw.

"NO!" said Jian, but Kang ignored her and headed towards a ladder that led to the rooftop, Bo and Peng following him. Desperate, Jian looked around, wondering what to do. One of the guards was still alive, panting in the floor, she jumped over him and grabbed him by the neck.

"Where is he?! Where is lord Shen?!" she demanded. The boar made a weak attempt to shake her off him. Jian punched him in the stomach, making him give into a violent round of coughs.

"Where?!"

"Bitch..." another punch, this time in the face

"Where?!"

"I don't know..."

"LIAR!" shouted the wolf, as she punched him again...

Kang was about to lit the fuse when someone snatched the flare out of his hands.

"Jian! What the hell...?!"

"The Dōnggōng palace!"

"What?"

"Lord Shen is at the Dōnggōng palace" repeated the woman, pointing at the large building, it's silhouette could be guessed in the darkness.

"How do you...?" Kang noticed her blood stained fists, some of the red substance was staining the girl's mouth...

"Alright, but we have to tell Chao first" he said "I'll send a messenger to..."

"Oh, no to hell with that!" exclaimed Jian, and gave a loud howl...

* * *

><p>The white peacock rose his head when he heard the howl. There was a wolf near. First the explosion and now this. It couldn't be a coincidence. The guards were nervous, whatever was happening, it was big. Shen had heard many hurried steps on the upper floor and Qiao's nervous voice ordering something.<p>

Silence returned for a few minutes, Shen was starting to believe that Shu wouldn't come...

"Mi lady, I'm afraid you can't – Ugh!" a strong hit was heard, and then another one, followed by the noise of two large objects hitting the ground. A moment later, the peahen appeared in front of his cell.

"Stand up" she ordered. Once the peacock did it, she opened the door "Against the wall and put your wings up"

"I can't" answered Shen, indicating his bandaged shoulder. He smiled for his insides when she hesitated. It was going to be easier than he had expected. She entered the cell and cautiously kneeled to open the locks on his ankles. Shen heard the metallic chinking and felt the pressure of the chains on his feet disappear. He played with the knife that was hidden between the feathers of his left wing, the young peahen could die whenever he decided to strike.

The peacock made a slight move, just wagged his tail a little to recover from the long time of not moving, and in less than a heartbeat, Shu parted from him and unsheathed her sword, which was now poking under his beak.

Shen was shocked, he couldn't have moved faster. Apart from himself, the only person he knew capable of such speed was his master.

"I don't want to kill you, lord Shen, but if you do or say anything I don't like, you can be sure that I will"

With a gesture she ordered him to get out of the cell and went after him, being careful not to step on his train.

"What was all that commotion?" asked Shen when they reached the main hall

"I'm not sure, I think some raiders are attacking the city" answered Shu "A large group of them, my father even sent most of the guards that were watching the palace to help controlling it..."

"And did he go with them?" the white peacock asked that with a carefree and innocent tone, hoping to catch her off guard

"That's none of your business, now keep moving" she said, poking him with the sword

They were about to reach the door when it opened and pair of guards blocked their way.

"Hey!"

"Step away from her!" ordered one of them, raising his sword.

Before Shu could do anything, Shen turned around and raced at the wide stairs with lighting speed, with the two soldiers running after him.

"Wait! Stop!" she ordered, sheathing her sword and rushing after them.

She followed them to a dark corridor, which she remembered was the one that led to Wen's chamber. The candles were extinguished but still smoking, lord Shen had probably used his fan to turn them off and ambush the guards in the darkness...

The peahen tripped with a large object lying on the ground, even without the faint moonlight that entered trough the windows she could have guessed that it was one of the guards, dead...

She spotted his partner a few meters ahead, also dead, and lord Shen was nowhere to be found; she cursed, if the peacock was able to kill both guards without even giving them time to scream, he could obviously do the same to her...

A whisper behind her! She turned but saw nothing. Looking over her shoulder, she gave a few steps, wondering if she should stay there... Maybe the white peacock had already left without her noticing him. Maybe he was stalking one of her parents, silent as a shadow...

Another whisper! There was definitely something there. Shu went to grab her sword, but suddenly, something covered her face, blinding and suffocating her.

Shen pressed the curtain tighter around her head, in a few seconds she would fall unconscious and he would be able to sneak out of the palace with his valuable hostage...

She was starting to feel dizzy, her wings were trying to rip the silk, but it was useless, lord Shen was going to kill her father, and it was her fault, she thought, as her conscience slowly faded...

A volley of silver bolts came out of the darkness. Shen had to release the peahen, who's feet couldn't hold her and fell down, in order to deflect the small projectiles with his knife.

"Don't you dare touch my daughter again" said a menacing voice, and a moment later, lady Xiu walked within his view. More knifes could be seen shining at the tip of her right wing, ready to fly at the white peacock's neck.

Shu coughed on the floor and tried to stand up. Shen grabbed the back of her robe with his talons and forced her to stand in front of him, acting as a living shield.

"Get out of my way, woman, or she dies" warned Shen, placing the knife in Shu's neck.

Another round of projectiles flew at him. Their shape and Xiu's way to throw them allowed her to give them a curved trajectory (unlike Shen's, which could only fly in a straight line). The metal pieces avoided Shu's body and went towards his instead, and although Shen managed to deflect or dodge most of them, one reached him and left a long cut on the base of his neck.

"You are not in a position to make threats" said the peahen "Now _let her go_"

Another howl echoed outside, this time closer, in the frontal garden. Other wolves howled back and a peacock's cry replied to them.

"Looks like your husband has visitors" said Shen "You should be helping him, like you did before..."

"He can handle your wild dogs by himself, as I can handle you by myself"

"Yeah... I wouldn't be so sure about the last part..." said Shen "... Because, although your technique is quite refined, there is still something you lack..."

"And what would be that?" replied Xiu, sliding another knife between her fingers.

"_Defense!_" shouted the white peacock, and threw the knife at her. He had observed that she could launch her knives quite well, but she lacked the skill to dodge or deflect them.

The peahen gave a pain cry and lost her stance when the knife pierced her chest.

"Mother!" screamed Shu, terrified. But the wound wasn't lethal. Lady Xiu grabbed the knife by the handle and pulled it out. Shen saw this as the signal to withdraw and dragged Shu away.

Instead of following them, Xiu gave a loud call to give the alarm.

Outside the palace, Kang and Mei's group had engaged with the boar soldiers that remained in the building, trying to reduce them fast enough to get inside and rescue lord Shen before the reinforcements arrived. However, the battle had turned in favor of the boars when lord Qiao had joined his men.

Armed with the Yín yè spear, the blue peacock was fighting against three wolves at the same time, and he was winning...

Jian had just managed to stab the boar standing in front of her, and when he fell, the wolf spotted the lord, spinning Shen's weapon, and lunged at him.

Qiao saw her when she was over ten steps away from him and pretended that he hadn't done it. When she was almost over him, he turned around and stopped her by thrusting the tip of the shaft at her chest. The Yín yè had a metal counterweight on it's tip that served to increase it's balance and strike non-lethal but painful blows. This metal piece hit the wolf, that was running in it's opposite direction, with such strength that it snapped two of her ribs.

She fell back, with the air literally stricken out of her lungs, waiting for he killing blow. But Qiao, knowing that she wasn't a threat, decided to focus on the other wolves. Jian watched him fan his tail and close it back in a flash to distract one of them and then kill him by slicing his throat. Another wolf attacked from behind, but, without turning, Qiao spun the halberd to point at him and thrusted it under his wing, stabbing the wolf.

Now there was only one wolf against him left. The blue peacock saw an opening in his defense, and was about to finish him with one blow when Kang jumped in and diverted his attack.

The captain was a good fighter and managed to counter most of Qiao's strikes. However, the peacock was still too fast; spinning the lance, he hit the wolf's muzzle with the counterweight, breaking one of his fangs, and then stabbed his stomach.

"Kang!" exclaimed Jian, holding her chest with one arm as she tried to stand up, holding her sword with the other hand.

Qiao took aim, ready to finish her off, but suddenly, a peahen's cry came from within the palace and the blue peacock took off, leaving his men alone against the handful of wolves that remained...

Shen opened the door with a kick and pushed Shu inside the room before entering and locking the door.

When he turned, he immediately realized that that had been the soothsayer's room. Everything was arranged in the way she liked: The fancy bed that was present in every sleeping room of the palace had been replaced by a low cot under the window, with over five thick wool blankets, and the silk pillow had several bite markings, signs of the old goat's nocturnal snacks. A tea kit was resting near the extinguished fireplace, and at the other side of the room there was a desk, occupied only by a white china bowl.

Until now, Shen had managed to keep the soothsayer away from his thoughts, but seeing her last residence brought her back to his mind. He felt a knot in his throat and coughed to make it go away.

He returned to his senses when Shu got up, recovering from her fall, and took a deep breath to shout for help.

Just in time, Shen reached her and grabbed her beak to force it shut before she could reveal their position. But the peahen elbowed him in the stomach and pushed him away.

"This was not what we agreed, lord Shen!"

"We agreed nothing, girl" replied lord Shen with an evil grin "You just talked and assumed that I accepted your terms"

Shu grasped her sword and tried to unsheathe it, but the white peacock lunged at her and grabbed the weapon with his talons, forcing it back inside it's sheath, and pushed her, throwing her over the table, which collapsed under her weight. The peahen remained in that position, shocked by the fall.

Something emerged from under the broken furnishing and rolled towards Shen's feet.

Puzzled, Shen grabbed it to give it a close look. It was a bamboo tube, which contained several sheets of paper. Painted on the green wood was his emblem, the black sun with six rays...

Something hit the door with a tremendous strength: The guards had found them.

Not wasting any time, Shen grabbed Shu's wing and pulled of it to get her up, ignoring her whines, he opened the window and forced her to climb to it, and before he could do it himself, the door collapsed and Qiao stormed inside the room, pointing at him with the spear and showing a frightening expression.

Shen took Shu's sword out of its sheath with his good wing and took a fighting stance.

"Drop the weapon and step away from my daughter, Shen" said the blue peacock, menacingly "Don't do anything stupid, your men are defeated, they can't help you, you've reached the end of the road"

Shen didn't answer, just looked at him with his eyes so full of hatred that they almost burned. Lady Xiu entered the room, covering her wound with her wing, along with two guards.

Shu was standing at the sill of the window, looking at the ground, several meters below, in which the battle was taking place. More wolves had arrived, as well as the rest of her father's warriors. This ruled out the thought of gliding down to escape. Instead, she tried to sneak back into the room while Shen was focused on her father, but when she moved to climb down of the window, a white wing grabbed her robe and pushed her out so brusquely that she lost her step and had to grab his wing not to fall. She heard her mother gasp.

"Let her go, you bastard!" said Qiao "And your death won't be so painful"

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Qiao, remember that you still haven't caught me"

"You speak as if you had a chance to actually leave this place!" laughed the blue peacock, walking forward and raising the spear "Little ghost, don't be a..."

He couldn't end the phrase: Shen threw the sword at him. Qiao wasn't expecting that but managed to block the flying weapon with the shaft of the spear, although a large splinter was torn from the ancient wood and the sword reached his arm.

The blue peacock dropped the spear, grabbing his wing with a cry, and the two boars lunged at Shen, but the white peacock had climbed to the window. Grabbing the princess with his talons and opening his shortened fan, he jumped...

A series of howls sprouted from the garden when the wolves spotted the white peacock gliding away from the palace.

Outnumbered and seeing that lord Shen had escaped, the canes dispersed, climbing to the neighboring buildings and disappearing in the night.

The boars celebrated their victory, unaware of the situation inside the palace. Lord Qiao had immediately climbed to the sill of the window, intending to go after Shen, but his injured shoulder wouldn't allow him to fly.

Frustrated and unable to do anything, he screamed his daughter's name to the sky, and the wind took his voice away...

Gliding with a short train, an injured shoulder and carrying a large object that did nothing but struggle and shout soon proved to be harder than expected. Shen immediately noticed that she was loosing height fast; and due to his injured wing, which was aching like hell because of the effort he was placing in it, his trajectory was inevitably diverting to the west, straight into the city's heart.

Sooner than he would had liked, he was at the same level than the higher buildings, his body begging for mercy. He had to land...

Shu gave a terrified cry when the peacock headed straight at the wall of a large building and closed her eyes, bracing for the imminent collision...

Shen neatly entered the building, that seemed to be a tailoring, trough a window, and dropped the peahen before landing himself.

"You madman! Are you stupid?! What the hell were you thinking?!" blurted Shu, as she got up from the pile of robes she had landed on.

Shen ignored her, grabbing his shoulder and repressing a squeak of pain.

"Ha! Not so scary now, are you?" teased the peahen "Guess what: now you are on your own, I'll distract my father so you can get your white ass out of here, and if you ever return..."

She was walking towards the entrance of the building as she spoke.

"What are you doing?" asked Shen

"What does it looks like? I'm leaving! I'm sick of you pushing and hitting and choking me!"

"Leaving?" asked the white peacock as he went after her "I don't think so..."

"I'd like to see you try stopping me!" sad Shu, as she lunged at the door, but before she could give two steps, a perch was thrown at her feet entangling between her talons and making her fall. A moment later, Shen was over her, holding a robe, which he tied tightly around her torso, immobilizing her wings, in less than a blink.

"_Heeeeeel_...!" with enviable skill, the white peacock used a leather cord (the place was full of them) to form a lasso and tie her beak closed.

"There! This should serve to calm you down" said Shen, amused by her silent struggle.

"I heard someone screaming over here!" there was someone outside, the heavy steps of a group of boars came from the street, clearly lord Qiao hadn't wasted any time, he had sent his men to search the area where Shen was most likely to had landed in.

The white peacock heard the lock of the door being opened. _Damn it._ He thought. Without ceremonies, he grabbed the princess and dragged her back to the pile of robes she had landed in, threw her over it and then laid next to her as he covered both of them with a robe so big that the only one that could have used it, he thought, was master Thundering Rhino.

At that moment, the door opened and two boars entered and began registering the possible hideouts.

The soldiers were tired after the battle and wanted to be done as fast as possible, which was good for Shen, as they walked past them without inspecting the pile cautiously (in that case they would had spotted him right away).

Finally, the boars left and the white peacock separated from the princess. What an irresponsible army his cousin had brought...

* * *

><p>He decided to remain in the tailoring for a little longer, at least until the guards left that alley. His plan of stealing a boat was no longer viable: he was too far from the docks, and they were probably heavily guarded. He would have to travel by land. The nearest way out of the city was the west one, he guessed. If he managed to reach it undetected he would be far within the countryside by dawn.<p>

To kill time, he decided to examine the bamboo tube. Shu mumbled something, but he ignored her. Pulling out one of the sheets and raising it so that it was reached by the moonlight, he saw a lot of unorganized characters, a meaningless waste of ink for the untrained eye, but lord Shen saw it for what it truly was: a codified message. The calligraphy was without a doubt the soothsayer's. The rest of the pages had messages of the same nature, although the peacock recognized may different codes. Why had the old goat done that? An over elaborate safety measure, perhaps? And more importantly: What was the content of those messages? They were for him, obviously, but although he had learned how to decipher hidden messages in his youth, and had acquired a lot of experience on it during his exile, for some reason these ones were impervious to him.

He was starting to believe that this was the soothsayer's final gesture to annoy him when he found a legible text. Surprised, he began to read it:

_Dear Shen, I don't have much time, so I will try to be brief:_

_By this moment I assume that you have escaped your cousin and his daughter, Shu, is now your hostage. It is of the utmost importance that you keep her unharmed_...

The peahen struggled to unleash her binding and Shen kicked her

_I have foreseen your future: You are about to take harsh road, which you are most likely to succumb in, but I have set a series of signs to guide you safely trough this path. Your instructions are written in these pages, which I have coded for you to decipher in due time. The reason of why I chose to reveal your future like this is because knowing the entire future in advance would kill you, as it has killed me. I beg you not to try to read my predictions ahead of time, Shen..._ The following paragraph was blurred. Had the soothsayer been crying at the moment of writing that? Shen skipped to the next point where the text was legible._ Lord Qiao will arrive in e few minutes. He will tell you that I died to help him to defeat you. Know that it isn't true: I died to help you, Shen, you will understand why in the future._

_Please forgive me for not saying goodbye personally, forgive me for everything_...

When was the last time he'd seen the soothsayer? Wondered Shen, blinking to get rid of that annoying burning sensation in his eyes. The old goat had wished him happiness...

_This is farewell, Shen, I won't ask you to show mercy on your cousin (as he didn't show mercy on you) neither to desist on your plans. What I'm going to ask you is to be benevolent towards those you defeat and to always search happiness, which is what awaits you at the end of your path. _The last phrase was written hastily, as if the soothsayer was in a hurry to finish the letter. _Know that I have always loved you_

Shu was moving her shoulders, trying to loosen up the knot on the robe, when she heard a sob. Looking up she saw the white peacock with his back turned at her. At first she thought that she had imagined it, but she noticed that the peacock's shoulders were faintly shaking: he was _crying_. The frightening pale man that had tried to kill her parents and kidnapped her was crying!

She didn't know this, but lord Shen was, for the first time in many years, truly facing and expressing all the pain he felt...

* * *

><p><strong>A.N<strong>

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter (almost 13 pages, boy that was long), but if you think that it sucked a little bit (as I do), know that it was only this chapter, I'll try my best to finish the first part with some good epic Shen centered literature.**

**Sorry for the obscene delay... I truly am. To make up for it: Here's the rest of the first part of the story (It's going to be a trilogy).**


	10. The raptor

The white emperor

Chapter VII – The raptor

"Fear has its use but cowardice has none"  
>Mohandas Gandhi<p>

It was still dark over Gongmen city when peace returned to the streets. The large fire had extinguished and the smoke was beginning to clear.

The boar captain crossed the front garden of the Dōnggōng palace, watching his men carry the dead and wounded away. The raid had caught them off guard, the fact that such a small group of wolves had managed to give the boars such a hard time... And they had managed to get trough the center of the city undetected! Only because of the explosion had the pigs noticed something, it evidenced a major flaw in their training. That and the fact that the guards at the Dōnggōng palace had left Shen escape... With lord Qiao's daughter...

When he entered the hall, the captain immediately heard the blue peacock yelling in the second floor. As he climbed the stair, the screams became more understandable, someone was being scold like he or she had never been before. There was wrath in lord Qiao's voice, also some occasional squeak of pain and something else, a slight tone of despair...

The boar could also hear a woman crying. Was the peacock yelling at his wife?

The captain opened the door of Qiao's office and saw his lord sitting on a stool in front of his desk, while a physician treated the cut on his wing. Lady Xiu was standing behind him, with a bloody bandage covering her chest, convulsing with sobs that she tried to repress.

The target of the lord's wrath was another captain, the one in charge of the night watch, who was now enduring a volley of orders, insults and threats from the peacock.

"... and one of those bloody prisoners must know something! Get them to speak, I don't care what do you have to do, just do it! Now get the hell out of my sight!"

The boar left the room, gulping and shooting the newcomer a frightened glare.

"Stop that! I'm fine!" exclaimed Qiao, pushing the physician away. The pig bowed slightly and left the room as fast as his hoofs allowed him to. Leaving the captain alone with the royal couple.

"Sir, we have examined thoroughly the entire area where lord Shen could have landed... We couldn't find him, or the princess..."

"Keep searching..." said lady Xiu

"But mi lady, they must've already left the city..."

"_Send a goddamn search party then!_" shouted the peahen "Why the hell are you still here?!"

The captain backed off, frightened by her outburst, before nodding and leaving the room.

"We should do something by ourselves, instead of leaving everything in those incompetents' hands!" said Xiu. Qiao was still looking at the door and didn't turn to answer.

"Do you mean doing something like what you did tonight?"

"Excuse me?"

"You were here, in charge of protecting our daughter, you faced Shen, and he got away..."

"Are you implying that it was my fault?" coldly asked the peahen, feeling her chest boiling with rage.

"That is _exactly_ what I'm implying" answered Qiao, turning to face her.

Xiu slapped him with all her strength.

"How dare you?!" she exploded "Who chose to let Shen live? Who chose to imprison him in this palace? Who made me come back here before I could finish the wolves? It was _you_! You brought us to this bloody city and you made your cousin come here by trying to use his weapon!" her chest had puffed up, and she ignored the pain from the stab wound "It is because of your stupid ambitions that our daughter is at the mercy of a murderous psychopath and you even have the nerve to blame _me_?!"

Qiao touched his cheek with the tip of his wing, shrinking with every word that she pronounced.

"Now, if you excuse me, I'll go look for my daughter" said his wife with a poisoned tone "I won't ask you to bother coming with me, since it is obvious that you have more important things to care about"

And she left the blue peacock alone, her words carved in his mind.

_More important things... Your daughter... What do you care about the most, Qiao?_

* * *

><p>The dawn found the couple of birds in a narrow dirt trail that crossed a rice field. The city was just a few kilometers behind them.<p>

After leaving the tailoring, lord Shen had followed the wolves' trail and left the city through the west entrance, from which the guards had withdrawn or had been killed by the canes. This was fortunate for him, as the young peahen had been struggling and making all the noise that she could during the entire walk. Now that they had entered the countryside, she had calmed down. The white peacock had innerly thanked the gods for that. He was really tired, and dragging her while she was desperately struggling to get away had almost completely drained the little energy and patience he had left.

When the sunlight reached him, Shen moved aside of the road and sat down to rest for a moment, ignoring the peahen's brown eyes, that were fixed on him. He had crafted a rope, using some of the clothes from the tailoring, and tied it around the robe that was binding the princess' wings to handle her more easily. Grabbing it with his talons, he extracted a bottle of water that he had stolen from the last outpost and took a long drink.

He felt a slight pull from the rope, the princess was looking at him and then at the bottle, indicating that she wanted some. Thinking that he gained nothing by letting her die of thirst, Shen stood up and grabbed the cord around her beak.

"Look, my head is killing me and no one can hear you here, so I would really appreciate if you refrained from screaming, alright?" she nodded and the peacock unleashed the cord. And in the second the gag was off, Shu gave a long, loud squeak, pushing her lungs to their limit, a few inches from Shen's face.

It was like a drill in his brain. The peacock tried to lash her beak again, but when he lifted the cord, Shu snatched it with her beak and swallowed it, ignoring the foul taste and feeling of the leather sliding down her throat.

It took Shen every drop of self restraint he had not to hit her.

"Uff, that's a relief" said the princess after opening and closing her beak to wake her numb jaw "Now, what about the water, I'm thirsty"

"There it is" answered the white peacock, saving the bottle in his robe and pointing at the muddy water of the rice crops "Drink as much as you want"

"Come on, I can't drink that! Give me yours"

"If you shut up I'll give you some, now we must go on" answered Shen, and he pulled of the rope to force her to walk after him.

In the following minutes it was left more than clear that Shu preferred annoying Shen rather than quenching her thirst. She gave into an endless rant about what a prick he was and how much she regretted trying to help him.

Shen decided to play deaf and focus on something else until she got tired.

Of course, the focusing part wasn't hard, the soothsayer's final words had taken hold of his thoughts.

The soothsayer had always been very unclear with her predictions, alleging that giving a detailed description of the future would just torment the listener. Why had she decided to leave him instructions or "signs", then? And why had she died? How could her death benefit him in any way?

If only that annoying hen would shut up for a second...

Shen extracted the bamboo tube. Not even for a second had he intended to obey the old goat's request of not trying to decipher those messages ahead of time. When he had the chance, he would crack all of them, before starting with his plans.

Suddenly, he felt a pull on his train. Turning around, he saw that Shu had stepped on it.

"Hey, Shen, I asked you a question!" she said, undeterred by the peacock's look, which would had terrified the mightiest of her father's warriors "What are you going to do with me? Are you going to kill me?"

"I'm not, unfortunately" said Shen "But I'm going to hurt you _really bad_ if you don't step off my tail right now!"

"What is it, then?" she asked, lifting her foot to release his fan

"I'm going to ask a ransom for you"

"And why do you want the money?"

"That's none of your business"

Shen pulled of the rope but she didn't move.

"Why were you crying?"

"What?!"

"Last night, in the tailoring" she said "You were crying, I saw you"

"No, I wasn't!"

"Yes, you were! Was it because you were scared? Or maybe because you're a freak?"

"What-did-you-just-say?" asked Shen, his voice was trembling.

"Ohh! Did I just hit a nerve?" teased the peahen "My father told me that your parent's were ashamed of you, that they banished you because of your... Deformity..."

"Shut up!"

"It must've been hard... I understand why that memory makes you cry, even today" she continued, undeterred "...I would also cry if my parents didn't love me..."

Shen's talons closed around her neck, pulling her face close to his.

"You have a very annoying tongue, _brat_, it is clear that you inherited it from your father" their beaks were almost touching each other "But I think that he prefers women to be silent..."

Shu felt his clawed fingers sliding across her face. Putting his talons on the corners of her beak, Shen forced her to open it and, thrusting his own inside her mouth, he grabbed her pointy tongue.

Her breathing became shallow because of the panic that invaded her, and Shen didn't need to look at her eyes to know that they had filled with tears. He pulled a little and was pleased to hear an acute whine of pain and fear coming out of her.

The white peacock tensed his neck, preparing to rip off her tongue, taking care of making it visible to her, and in the last second, he opened his beak and pushed her away.

Shu fell on her back, and remained in that position, unable to get up. She was shaking, terrified, and effectively, there were tears running down her cheeks.

"Learn your place, brat" said Shen, coldly "The next time you do or say anything I don't like, I _will_ do it"

Although that served to shut her up and infused a respectful fear in her, it also motivated her to escape as soon as possible. The white peacock was insane and dangerous, Shu kicked herself mentally for being so careless with him, that was the reason of her being in that situation, she had also risked the lives of Wen and her parents; but he was also wounded, tired and unarmed. The peahen could see it by his lowered head, his slow steps and the way in which he dragged his train through the dirt, not caring about his beautiful feathers. He was at the limit of his resistance...

They had entered a small forest when the peacock stopped, grabbing his shoulder and panting. It was her chance!

Shu lunged at him from behind and pushed him with her body. Lord Shen lost balance and fell, giving a surprised squeak and dropping the rope.

Without wasting any time, the peahen ran away, heading back to the city. She looked over her shoulder and saw that the peacock hadn't got up. Had he fainted? She wouldn't stay to find out...

She bumped into something and before she could see what it was, a pair of furry hands lifted her effortlessly.

A group of wolves had emerged from between the trees and were now surrounding her. She struggled, but it was futile, the black wolf that held her was too strong, and he laughed at her desperate attempts to escape from his grip.

"Lord Shen!" exclaimed another wolf, a young female, as she rushed to the white bulge, a few meters away.

The white peacock was in an atrocious state: his white feathers where ruffled and covered in dirt, his robe was in tatters and there was a bloody bandage that had to be changed in his right shoulder, but he was alive.

"We must take him to the camp!" said Jian when she heard the others behind her.

"And what about the girl?" asked Huïsè, looking at the peahen kicking in Chao's hands "We could ask a ransom for her, that must be why lord Shen was keeping her captive"

"As long as she's with us they will pursue us" said Mei "And we already have to carry the wounded, we can't afford watching a prisoner. I say that we should let her go"

"Then she will tell her father exactly where we are and his men will catch us in less than a tailwag!"

"We should kill her, then!" suggested another wolf, and he was chorused by the others.

Shu's eyes widened with fear.

"She's lord Shen's prisoner!" shouted jian, ignoring the pain of her broken ribs "The decision is only his!"

"You are right, Jian" said Chao "However... Ugh!"

One of Shu's kicks reached his stomach and he bent on his waist, letting her go. Another wolf tried to catch her but she dodged him and kicked him in the chin. Before anyone else could move, she grabbed his sword with her talons and used it to cut her bindings. With her wings released, she held the weapon with both hands and pointed it at the wolves to keep them away.

"My brothers, we're going to have peahen for dinner tonight!" Shu turned around and saw Chao standing up again, unsheathing his sword with an annoyed expression.

The wolf jumped on her, raising his saber with both hands, and she immediately rose her own, aiming at his chest. This was going to be her first real fight, her opponent intended to kill her and would not restrain himself like her father, and even if she defeated him (which was most unlikely, as she was almost as tired as lord Shen) there were the others. Watching the large wolf waving his sword at her, she realized that she was doomed.

Well, at least she would die on her feet...

Something tripped her. Before hitting the ground with her face, she felt the wind produced by the sword that passed just an inch above her.

She tried to get up, but someone put his foot en her back, pressing her against the ground.

"No one touches the girl" said a frost voice. Twisting her neck, she saw lord Shen, giving an authoritarian look at the wolves with his fan opened.

It took a supreme effort for him to stand there, holding his heavy train up while maintaining a firm tone. His heart was rampant. Would the wolves obey him?

They did, one by one they bowed to him. If he hadn't been trying to maintain a serious face, he would have sighed in relief.

He had used all of his strength. His eyes rolled up and he fainted, falling over the peahen.

Lord Shen opened his eyes and found Jian's yellow ones looking at him. He was lying on a coat, inside a tent, where the wolves had left him to rest. Someone, probably Jian, had changed his bandages.

"Hi" she said "Welcome back, sir"

"Jian... You found the wolves..." said the peacock.

"Yes, sir, sorry for the delay, it took me some more than expected to... find them" despite her complete loyalty towards lord Shen, she decided not to tell him about her pack's original intention of abandoning him. The peacock rose his hand to grab her arm.

"The girl... Where is she?"

"Mei is watching her with three men, we've crafted a small cage to hold her"

"Perfect" mumbled Shen, leaning his head in the pillow and closing his eyes, intending to sleep some more, he hadn't done that for a few days now...

"We've set up a place for you in the cart, sir, so that you can rest during the trip to Yu..."

"_What!_" exclaimed the peacock, his head immediately rising upon hearing that "Where are we going to?!"

"The Yu province, lord Shen, it is too dangerous to remain here"

"Idiots! We can't go west!" claimed the bird, jumping off the bed and storming outside the tent.

* * *

><p>Despite how much he hated it, Qiao had stayed in the palace. The city couldn't be left without government, specially after being raided, burned and used as a battlefield the last night.<p>

The blue peacock was forced to stay and take care of the mess, while his wife had taken over one hundred of the remaining guards to search the fields...

The red eye was staring at him from the feather in the showcase, mocking him. In just a few days, his cousin had thwarted his plans of getting the unstoppable weapon, weakened his authority over the city and his own men, turned his family against him, and now he had taken Shu...

Qiao extracted the white feather of it's shelf and, almost unconsciously, he dropped it to the floor and began to shred it with his talons, seeing red and wanting it to be the white peacock, wanting to return to that day, when he was in control and his cousin was lying on the ground at his feet.

When he was done releasing his frustration, the peacock stood still, panting over the remnants of the feather, and desolation dropped over him when he realized that he would never see his daughter again. The rain season was upon the province. The sky had covered with gray clouds that carried tons of rain water from the south. Soon, the roads would flood and become impassable, Xiu and her escort would be forced to turn around...

And so would be Shen...

Of course! The realization struck him. All the time they had assumed that lord Shen was heading west, taking their daughter to the province of Yu, but the only way to go there from Xu was crossing a valley between the mountains that delimited part of the frontier. Said valley was crossed by the river that ended in Gongmen's harbor. During the rain season, it's level would rise several meters, flooding the valley and making it impossible to cross, even with a ship. Shen wouldn't risk trying to get there before the outbreak of the monsoon, neither would he head south or east: to the south he would be to close to the valley of peace and also trapped by the rain, and to the east he would return to Gongmen and find Xiu's group.

That left only the north. Qing province, to be precise. Knowing his cousin, he would prefer to travel by sea, the trip would be shorter, easier and it would be less likely for Qiao to find him. But he needed a boat for that...

Qiao extended a map of the province on his desk and immediately saw what he was looking for: a small dot at the coast line a few miles north from the city, a fishing village. If Shen wanted to escape from him he needed to get to that village, it was his only choice...

* * *

><p>"You must find lady Xiu as soon as possible" stated the blue peacock, handing the letter to the falcon, who was said to be the fastest messenger of the province "Tell her that it's content is of the utmost importance"<p>

The prey bird nodded, grabbed the note with his talons and took of from the window, flying as fast as he could. In less than a few minutes, he had became a small dot, fading in the distance. But Qiao wasn't looking at that. Grabbing the Yín yè spear, he left the office and headed to the entrance hall. A company of about fifty boars was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs.

They were going to leave the city weakly protected, but he didn't care about that. The only thing in his mind was rescuing Shu and teaching Shen a new meaning for the word pain...


	11. The rain season

The white emperor

Chapter VIII – The rain season

"And the blood of brave men was shed like unto the shedding of rain from a black cloud"  
>Ferdowsi<p>

Lady Xiu removed the remnants of the campfire with the tip of her sword, observing that the ashes were already cold and dispersed by the wind, indicating that the fire was not recent. Lord Shen and his wolves had left that camp at least half a day ago.

She extracted the letter that Qiao had sent her, in which he explained briefly his theory that his cousin was heading back to the coast, taking a detour to the north, to get to a small fishing village where he could escape by sea. Her husband urged her to order her men to search the fields instead of following the road to the west.

The peahen had received the message about four hours ago, however she had disregarded it and maintained her course, not wanting to hear a word from or about her husband. And it seemed that she had done well: they were closing in on the wolves, who were carrying wounded _and prisoners_, by that night she would have reached them... And Qiao had tried to distract her with his stupid theories.

This was all his fault, since the day they had arrived to the city he had turned into a war obsessed monster, who didn't care about anything that wasn't useful to his plans... Like his family.

Xiu had recently realized that he had always been like that, only that she had failed to see this until now, fooled by the mask he wore to look like a good and honorable man to the eyes of the world and hide his true intentions, that were guided only by his lust for power.

He had married her not because he loved her, but because he would get a benefit from the union with her family, besides, she would serve him as some kind of general and she would give him an offspring that could carry on with his twisted vision. He just cared about Shu because she could be useful. Maybe he would force her to marry another peacock, one as vile as himself, just to ensure an alliance.

Xiu wouldn't give him the chance to do that. Once she had rescued her, she would take her away from Qiao, were his bottomless ambition couldn't hurt her...

"Lady Xiu?" someone called her. She turned around and saw the boar captain. Behind him the troop was distending, sitting in the ground of the clearing that the wolves had camped in with the more than obvious intention of doing the same.

"What on earth do they think they're doing?" asked the peahen with an icy tone.

"The men are tired, ma'am, we have been marching the entire day and we didn't have the chance to recover our strength from last night's battle" answered the boar "We have to make a pause..."

"They will rest when my daughter is safe" replied Xiu "We're stepping on their heels! Order the men to resume the march, we're doubling our speed..."

"I'm sorry mi lady, but I won't do that, you've already pushed these men too hard" said the captain firmly.

"You are at my service and you must do as I say!"

"No" the boar was not intimidated by the lady's menacing tone "You will allow us to rest or you will continue on your own"

"You insolent...!" muttered the peahen with her crest lowered, the corners of her beak tensing and her voice boiling with wrath. Without noticing, she had slid a knife between her fingers and raised her arm, ready to strike the captain.

"Owww!" she whined, lowering her arm and pressing the stab wound on her chest with the other hand, closing her eyes to endure the pain. She staggered and found the captain's hoofs holding her shoulders. She gave him an enraged look, her eyes shining with tears of anger.

"It's no use being able to catch up with them if we are too tired to put up fight, mi lady" he said "We will make a pause, but it will be brief. I promise that we will rescue the princess, even at the expense of our own lives"

"Fine!" she said, recovering her stance and pushing him away "two hours to eat and rest, then we go on!"

"Very well, mi lady" the boar bowed to her and left.

Xiu sat on the dirt floor, trying to ignore the pain, and gave a long sigh, that ended in a sob she failed to contain. She was so frustrated, angry with everyone, with Qiao for being such a selfish bastard, with Shu for releasing Shen, with Shen just because he existed and most of all, with herself...

She covered her face with her hands, wiping the few tears that had managed to escape her eyes and hoping that no one had seen her.

"Um... Excuse me, mi lady" the falcon was standing in front of her. She had ordered him to stay by her side in case she needed to send a message back to Gongmen city "Don't you have a reply for your husband ready yet?"

"No, not yet" she answered with a grave voice, before raising her head "As a matter of fact, I have a different task for you: I want you to go ahead and make a reconnaissance flight of the next part of the road, find lord Shen and his wolves and make an approximation of how many of them remain and how far are they. Can you do that?"

"Yes, lady Xiu" said the falcon, lowering his head and he extended his wings to take off, but folded them again "I believe that your husband said something about lord Shen crossing the fields and heading north-east..."

"Yes, he said that... Amongst many other things"

"So... Would you like me to search the fields as well?"

"No, I want you to find my daughter! Follow the road until you find them"

"As you wish" said the bird of prey, before finally taking off...

* * *

><p>Lord Shen almost wished being back in the basement of his cousin's palace. Anywhere was better than there, in the middle of that field, sinking his feet in the turbid water, feeling his talons digging in the mud, between the hard and sharp sprouts of rice, and not being able to see where he stepped on.<p>

Although Shen's original plan was to return a few miles on their steps, remaining in the road as long as possible before venturing trough the flooded meadow, they had been forced to leave the road sooner, after the scouts revealed that they were being followed by a large group of boars. So now they were taking a longer and harder road, but hopefully, they would lost their pursuers. According to Shen's estimations, they would reach their destination in a day and a half, probably more, as they were carrying supplies and several wounded men and women trough a less than adequate terrain. The only thing to do was to keep moving and hoping that the enemy didn't learn about their location or their new destination.

The white peacock staggered by the weight of his train, which he had to keep opened to prevent the long feathers from getting wet, which would make them twice as heavy.

"Are you feeling alright, sir?" asked Jian, offering her hand.

"Yes, I just tripped" answered Shen, rejecting her help and recovering his stance "How are the wolves doing?"

"They can handle a bit of mud, but, sir, would you like us to..."

"If they can do it so can I" interrupted Shen, attempting to give another step, but again, the weight of his tail made him loose balance. He would have fallen to the pond if Jian hadn't grabbed him just in time.

"Sir, you're exhausted, you have to let us carry you"

"NO! You already have too much work with the wounded" Jian shot him a surprised glare. Since when did Shen put others' welfare before his own? Since when did he care about the wolves having too much work enough to sacrifice his own comfort? Maybe he was just trying to prove that he didn't need any help. That behavior was usual amongst the males, but she thought that Shen was above that irrational and apparently innate pride.

"_You_ are wounded!" she replied.

"So are you" he had noticed that the girl had a pain grimace that she was trying to conceal, she was pressing her side with her hand and she was having troubles breathing, she must had one (or more) broken ribs.

"It's no big deal" said the wolf "And I'm a soldier, I'm trained to endure this sort of things but you don't have to..."

Shen was tempted to accept, and he was about to do it when he felt someone's eyes on him. He turned and discovered Shu, staring at him from the bamboo cage in which a pair of sturdy wolves was carrying her. The only thing that kept her beak shut was the fear that he had instilled in her, and that fear was going to banish the second he showed the slightest sign of weakness.

"Hey! What are you looking at?!" brusquely asked Jian. The peahen fixed her a hostile glare but didn't answer.

"Just ignore her, and don't worry about me, I can go on by myself" said Shen.

* * *

><p>Wolf footprints on the road, heading west. This was what the falcon found after a few hours of following the road. But they were faint, like if they were a few days old. This puzzled the bird, it would take at least a day to reach that point from the abandoned camp afoot, he should have found lord Shen's group long ago. Those prints had to belong to another group, and either he had missed the lord, or the peacock had gone in another direction, just as lord Qiao had said...<p>

The messenger doubted. Should he return to lady Xiu? She was definitely heading the wrong direction, but he knew that she wouldn't accept the possibility of her husband being right... Unless he gave her tangible evidence of that, like an exact location... But if he went to search the fields he could spend days flying without finding anything, and the princess would be effectively lost by then, and the royal peacocks would have his head cut off...

He looked up, the sun had already passed it's zenith and had started it's slow descent. The sky seemed to be clear, but to the south, a dark mass of clouds was approaching: the annual monsoon was close.

Using the skill he had acquainted with years of crossing long distances, always pendent of the weather, he was able to know that the rain would reach them by the next noon, and the roads would become impassable. Whatever he did, he had to do it now.

"Let it be what fate wants" he muttered, taking off, heading to the fields.

* * *

><p>Lord Shen was filled with relief when his feet touched dry and firm ground. Despite what he had told Jian, the long journey trough the crops had been an actual torture for him. He walked a few steps away from the water and lowered his train, feeling cramps in his low back. Turning around he eyed the vast swamp that extended beyond his sight. Standing at it's edge he realized for the first time how big it was.<p>

The remnants of his army were as relieved as him and as they deposited their cargo on the floor, they were already setting a camp, without waiting for him to tell them to do so.

He felt slightly annoyed by their lack of discipline, but he decided not to scold them. He didn't want to press their loyalty more than what he already had. Instead, he decided to have a word with Chao.

He located the black wolf organizing the disposition of the tents.

"Captain!" called the peacock. Chao turned around and immediately kneeled, fixing his eyes on Shen's talons.

"Mi lord" he said with a hint of fear in his voice, fearing that the noble was going to punish him, maybe for his rudeness with the prisoner, maybe for not rescuing him in time, maybe for setting camp without waiting for his command. Who cared, the thing was that lord Shen was not a person that he wanted to be mad at him.

"How much time do the wolves require before resuming the march?" that caught him off guard, there was no anger or pressure in the bird's words, just harmless interest, yet, Chao couldn't figure out if he was discontent. He decided not to take any chances, after all, he remembered how volatile his lord was.

"Not much, sir, but I can order them to keep going if you..."

"We're close to the village, captain, and we've outran the boars" Shen interrupted his speech "I need to rest too, we can afford to spend the night here... And could you please stop looking at my feet? you're making me nervous"

Still crouching, Chao lifted his eyes to meet Shen's. He was about to thank the lord for this unexpected display of generosity when he spotted a small silhouette gliding behind his head.

"Sir! Look!" he said pointing at it. Lord Shen followed his finger and discovered the black dot moving across the sky. It was too high to see it clearly but it looked like a bird of prey, it was gliding in circles right over them.

Some of the wolves had also noticed it and were commenting it between them.

"Quick, cover the cages!" ordered Chao, but Shen rose his wing to stop him.

"Don't bother, he already saw everything... Do we have any bows left?"

"No, sir, we lost them all during the raid"

At that moment, the bird broke off his cycle and headed to the west.

"Damn it!" cursed the black wolf.

Jian walked near them, with her sight fixed on the bird as it flew away.

"Do you think he was looking for us?"

"Of course he was, idiot!" snapped Chao, kicking the ground "Now those pigs will be after us again! Right when we managed to loose them!"

"Calm down, captain" said Shen with a calm tone "We still have an advantage, they've spent a lot of time following the road and moving away from us, when that explorer reaches them, they will still have to retrace their steps and there is still the swamp between them and us... Yet, we will have to shorten our break, the fact that they are away doesn't mean that we have to wait for them. Captain, brief the wolves of our situation and tell them to be ready to resume the march in three hours"

"Yes, sir" the black wolf walked away, gathering the pack. Lord Shen sighed, there would be time to rest when they were away from there, he thought, as he walked towards the cage that the wolves had left carelessly unguarded.

When she saw the white peacock nearing, Shu stood as straight as she could in the low cage and pressed her body against the opposite wall, trying to put the greatest distance possible between the both of them. Once he reached the cage, lord Shen lowered his head to look at the peahen between the bars, and without saying anything he began circling the bamboo structure with his wings folded and his red eyes fixed on his hostage, showing an evil grin as she moved inside her cell to get away from him.

"What do you want?" she finally snapped. Seeing that he didn't answer, she added "Do you think you are scary? Allow me to take you out of your delu..."

Shen bit the air, thrusting his head forward and shaking his tail feathers, producing a frightening sound that made Shu cut her phrase in mid air and look at him with her eyes widened with fear.

"Were you going to say _delusion_?" asked Shen with a playful smile "And how are you going to take me out of it by being afraid of me?"

Shu gave him an unfriendly glare and looked away without answering. The peacock circled the cage to meet her eyes again.

"Don't you have anything better to do? Leave me alone!"

"I see you still have some spirit left..."

"What do you want from me?!" exclaimed the princess moving away from him.

"Nothing in particular, I just find it pleasantly satisfying to see you like this, Shu" It was the first time that he addressed her by her name instead of derogatory nicknames, but he managed to sound as insulting as always.

"And why is that?" she asked, bitterly "I healed your wound, I stopped your torture, I released you... What have I ever done to you?"

"Well, to begin with, you _gave_ me this wound..." answered Shen, grabbing his injured shoulder.

"You were attacking my father!"

"Ah yes! Your father... He's the center of all this, you know?" said the white peacock "For you, he might be the perfect man who the wicked and twisted lord Shen is attacking with no apparent motives. But I'm amongst the few living persons that know what lies under that mask. Did you know that we learned martial arts together, your father and I?"

From her silence he deduced that she didn't.

"He was, if possible, less subtle than now. An arrogant bully... Everything that I didn't have or had to fight to get he had it since the moment he hatched: a normal and strong body, the love and pride of his parents, friends... I heard that he was also quite popular amongst the peahens..."

"So is that it? You're jealous of my dad?" asked Shu with a scornful grin.

"At first" said Shen, ignoring her disrespectful tone and strolling around the cage "But then I learned that what you gain without effort is worth less than nothing. I swore to myself that I would earn whatever I received. And I did, I managed to consolidate a few _true_ friendships, instead of those shallow flatterers that surrounded Qiao for their own interests and would stab him in the back without hesitating whenever the tides changed. I trained night and day for years, harder than anyone else, until I managed to surpass my physical limitations and defeated my cousin, who had never experienced what was it to lack something. I was granted the Yín yè spear and presented it to my father..."

"Oh yeah! And where were your _true_ friends or your parents' love and pride when they banished you? Was your spear helpful up there in the mountains?" teased Shu "You are still a freak, you can't change that! And as far as I know, not even a single woman has been stupid enough to come near you"

"I know of one" said the white peacock, hitting the bamboo cage with the side of his train, causing the entire structure to shake violently. Shu lost her feet and fell on all fours.

"Anyway, I must admit that I have always held a deep rancor towards that cocky bastard. Before that stupid panda stopped me I was planning to divert part of my army to your home city to finally wipe off that sad excuse for a ruler that my cousin is. I knew that he had a family but I didn't care, my business were just with him. That was until he decided to usurp my title and steal everything I've fought for. Now I've proposed to, after retrieving what's mine, repay him with the same coin: I'm going to take his city and all his possessions, then I'm going to kill you and your dear mother, while he watches, of course. And finally, after having him endure more pain than you could dream of, I'm going to take his life"

His eyes were wide opened by the end of his monologue, and his voice was shaking with excitement. Shu looked at the white peacock, terrified. He was more frightening now than when he had stalked her in the dark corridor, or pressed that knife against her throat or when he had held her tongue in his beak, ready to rip it off. And this was because, no matter how deep she peered within his red irises, there was not a single trace of madness in his look. All his monstrous actions, the panda genocide, the obsession to conquer China. She had always thought that they were the result of a broken mind, guided by some twisted logic. But now she could see the truth, written in those crimson eyes that looked like drops of blood: Lord Shen was pure evil. His malice was not normal, though, he was a demon. A monster that wanted to kill her and her parents, and enchain the whole world under his cruelty... And she had set him free...

* * *

><p>The sun was setting in front of them, painting the fields with it's orange glow and blinding them if they looked straight forward. Lady Xiu was getting impatient, and a tinge of unease had installed in her chest. There was no sign of the wolves where there should be plenty of them, what if Qiao was right and Shen was taking a detour? If that was the case she would have been walking away from him... But it couldn't be, she told to herself, shaking her head.<p>

"Lady Xiu!" one of the boars was pointing at something, it was the falcon! The peahen felt as if her guts had filled with lead. The bird was coming from the fields, from the north-east...

He landed next to her, and had to lean on the captain to remain on his feet. He panted a few times before talking with a weak voice.

"I found them... Mi lady..."

"Where?!" asked the peahen, kneeling in front of him and grabbing his shoulders. The messenger was on the brink of a physical collapse and she feared that he would drop dead in her arms before telling her anything.

The falcon had been flying as fast as he could, without stopping, for hours to find the wolves, and then all the way back to the boars. His wings and chest felt on fire and his throat had adopted the consistency of sandpaper, his feet had already stopped working, and only Xiu's grip was keeping him up. He tried to say something but the only sound he managed to emit was a rough moan.

"Water! Somebody give me water!" demanded the lady. A few seconds later, someone handed her a canteen, which she placed on the messenger's beak. He drank all it's content without stopping to breath.

"I saw them... They were at the edge of the fields... About fifty miles north-east of here..."

"And Shu?! Did you see her?!"

"Yes, mi lady, she is alive and appears to be unharmed"

Xiu rose her head and addressed the captain.

"Tell your men to drop the supplies, we're heading back to Gongmen city, we must be there before...!"

"Mi lady..." regretfully said the falcon "They... They saw me... They must be on the move right now, they will reach the coast by tomorrow's late morning..."

"We've strayed too far..." intervened the captain with grief, placing his hoof in the peahen's shoulder "We can't catch them... I'm sorr..."

"_No!_" the peahen released his shoulders and parted from him, breathing shallowly, refusing to accept what he was saying: there was nothing she could do. She gave a long cry of anguish and frustration, with her eyes quickly filling with tears. She hadn't been able to protect her daughter back at the palace and she wasn't able to do it now. She was _useless_.

"_NO! NO! NO!_" she cried. There were tears running down her cheeks, but she didn't do anything to hide them. There was no point in showing strength anymore; Shu was gone, her daughter was going to die and it was _her_ fault.

The peahen took a few steps, staggering without a given direction before screaming Shu's name to the wind. Her voice was cut by a violent sob, and she fell on her knees, shivering violently.

The boars and the falcon witnessed the whole scene, and although most of them had lowered their eyes, the lady's voice, usually beautiful but cold as an icicle, now shattered to pieces, flooded their ears, transmitting a small fraction of the pain she was feeling...

* * *

><p>The pack witnessed a gray dawn. During the night, the sky had covered with dense clouds, loaded with rain. Now the air was still and warm, announcing the imminent downpour. This made Shen glad that they hadn't stopped by the night. Instead, they had traveled the distance that separated them from their destination. Off in the distance it could already be seen: a tower, raising like a needle from the ground...<p>

The village of Gāo tǎ was located a few miles north of Gongmen city. It was formed by a group of small wooden buildings, gathered around a central plaza, and about half kilometers away, there was a port, which seemed disproportionated to the town's size, where several ships of different sizes docked every day. The reason for this was that every single inhabitant of the village was a fisher. Their production almost matched Gongmen's and they were one of the many satellite settlements that contributed to make the capital such a prosperous place.

The port was also used as a scale for merchant ships that wanted to avoid taxes for a short stay, realize last time maintenance or buy cheaper supplies.

But the distinctive feature of the village was a three floor tower, located between the residences and the port, as close to the coast as the ground stability allowed it. It was an old guard outpost, built by lord Jian Yu's great grandfather to watch the sea for invading fleets. But that had been during a time of great tension between the Xu and Qing provinces. Now the two provinces were allies and the tower was used as a lighthouse to guide the ships that traveled between them.

The village was founded by the first keepers of the lighthouse and had got it's name from the tower.

The group gathered in the middle of the plaza. Every building in the village was facing towards them and all the doors and windows were closed. Apart from them, the streets were deserted, the only noise came from the wolves, that were sniffing the air, raising their muzzles and twitching their ears with unease.

"Where is everybody?" asked Jian "Do you think they knew that we were coming?"

"No, there would be some sign of recent activity" answered Shen "If I had to guess, I'd say that they've evacuated the town because of the monsoon" he pointed up, indicating the cape of heavy gray clouds above them.

"Whatever, this place gives me the creeps" said the woman "I have a weird feeling..."

"So do I, we should go on" suggested Chao, who was as nervous as the rest of his pack.

"I agree" said the peacock, wandering his gaze around the wooden buildings "Gather the most skilled sailors and tell them to prepare a ship, tell the rest of the pack to start boarding when the boat is ready..."

"Understood, sir" the black wolf proceeded to call several wolves by their names and assign them tasks as he guided them to the port.

Shen watched them leave the plaza, heading to the docks. He was thinking of going to tease Shu some more. It had proved to be a great stress releaser, when Huïsè came up to meet him.

"Mi lord" said the gray wolf "We only have food for a few more days, and that building seems to be a storage" he pointed at a larger building that stood out between the others "We should take some supplies"

"Very well, take some wolves and gather enough food for the trip, but don't take too long, I want to set sail before the storm breaks loose"

"Yes, sir" Huïsè parted from him and went to face a group of wolves that were sitting on their luggage, enjoying of an unauthorized recess "Get up, you worthless fleabags! We have some work to do!"

Shen watched them walk towards the depot before sitting in one of the places that had just been unoccupied.

So, maybe his new quest for supreme power wasn't going out too well; until now nothing had gone the way he wanted, he had failed to retrieve his city, his army was on its last stance (there were about sixty wolves left under his command, they weren't properly armed and they were exhausted after a battle and two days of crossing wild fields and swamps; their moral was surely at floor-height), he had lost the surprise element that his "death" had given him and Qiao was after him. But he had an advantage: the princess. Soon they would be in open waters, en route to Qing. His cousin would then be forced to pay the ransom that would finance his new army. "How ironic" thought the white peacock "having to pay for the army that will march against him". And there were also the soothsayer's notes; in her letter she had said that she wasn't going to try to dissuade him, only guide him trough a safer path, but, knowing the old goat, the messages must be just a bunch of riddles and stories meant to convince him to abandon his goals.

He extracted the bamboo tube from his robe and spun it with the tips of his feathers, he hadn't thought much about it since the night he had found it. Now he was tempted to throw it away; it was the soothsayer's way of annoying him even after death, and all her cursed predictions had ever done was distracting him and making him commit mistakes.

Tightening his grip around the short tube, Shen lifted his arm to toss it as far as possible, but he wasn't able to do it, it was his last memory of the soothsayer, he couldn't just get rid of the last words she had directed to him... Almost without noticing, he placed the tube back within in the safety of his robe.

He bent his neck down and released an exhausted sigh. There would be time to examine the goat's predictions later, when they were sailing towards Qing. "Who knows, maybe there's something useful amongst those riddles" he thought, drawing scrawls in the floor with one of his talons.

The town's streets weren't paved and neither was the plaza; the ground was dry and covered with a thick layer of loose dirt, in which recent footprints were clearly distinguishable: there were paw prints, left by the wolves everywhere, a set of long fingered ones which Shen recognized as his own and a third type of print: a hoof, probably of a deer or a pig... No, it was larger, definitely larger than a pig's; it was a boar print, and it was recent, _very_ recent...

Shen bolted up and turned to see the group of wolves opening the large gates of the storage.

"Wait! It's a trap!"

The second those words left his beak, a large amount of boar soldiers came out of the building and attacked the canines at the doors, killing two of them almost instantly. Huïsè and the other two were fast enough to grab their weapons and adopt a defensive stance.

"Ambush!" yelled someone and chaos took over the plaza. Handfuls of boars emerged from the wooden huts and surrounded the wolves, who quickly recovered from the surprise and formed a defensive circle.

"Lord Shen!" Jian appeared besides him and placed herself in front of the lord, with her sword unsheathed and holding her side with her left arm. She had her yellow eyes fixed in the pigs in front of them and her lips were pulled back to reveal her fangs. A low grunt echoed in her throat. The rest of the pack was acting in a similar way. The fatigue that reigned seconds ago had left place to a savage eagerness for the fight.

For a moment nobody moved, the two groups limited to point their weapons at each other in silence, which gave Shen some time to think. That company was smaller than the one that was pursuing them to the west, he couldn't be sure because there could be more boars hiding, but at first sight it looked that the numbers more or less the same on both sides. These boars had probably been sent by Qiao from the city, and judging by the empty village, they'd been waiting there in advance. Once again Shen was at disadvantage... Or not...

"Well, it looks that my cousin is sharper than I thought" he said, gently pushing Jian aside and walking ahead to face the enemy warriors.

"Surrender now and Lord Qiao will have mercy upon you!" announced the boar captain "If you don't, we'll kill all of you!"

"You are not in a position where you can make threats, _boar!_" spat Shen with an unfriendly voice, ordering the wolves to let him trough with a gesture of his wing, so that he could talk with the enemy captain face to face "We have your princess, see..." he pointed the wolves holding the cage a few meters behind him, inside the circular formation, out of the boars' reach "Let us trough or she dies. Go back to Gongmen and tell my cousin that he will have his loud-mouthed daughter back when he decides to pay for her. And that the state she returns in depends on how... Generous... He is with the ransom"

"You can tell him by yourself, _peacock_" replied the captain looking behind Shen. The peacock turned and saw Qiao standing on the cage and the wolves guarding it lying on the floor. His cousin was wielding the Yín yè spear and it's blade was covered in blood. The two peacocks stared at each other's eyes for a moment. The entire plaza was silent...

"Attack!" shouted both of them at the same time.

A large cloud of dust rose from the floor when every soldier lunged forward, and the battle exploded with a clamor of screams and weapon clashes.

Covering his eyes to protect them from the dirt, Shen almost tripped with Jian.

"Mi lord!" she screamed over the noise "You have to get out of here! It's too dangerous!"

"We have to get to the docks!" replied the peacock, he was going to add something else when an arrow passed inches away from his face.

"Archers!"

"I know! Damn it!" yelled Shen, rubbing his beak. He approached his head to the woman's ear "Jian! Tell the wolves to make an opening in the enemy line and retreat to the ship!"

They had to part when a huge boar emerged from the turmoil waving his sword at them.

Shen pushed Jian away, which saved her life but almost got his wing severed; the weapon brushed his feathers and hit the floor. The soldier's face was in front of him and before he could strike again the bird cocked his head forward, poking the warrior's eye with his beak, making him drop the weapon and take both of his hands to his face, screaming in pain.

The scream died in his snout when Jian pierced his neck with her sword.

"Thank you, sir!" she said, pushing the corpse with her foot to release her weapon.

"And you were telling _me _to leave..." muttered Shen to himself.

"What...?!"

"Nothing! Get the pack out of here before everyone gets killed!"

"And what are you going to do?!"

The white peacock grabbed the dead boar's sword with his talons and tossed it upwards to catch it with his wing.

"I'm going to say goodbye to my cousin! _Now go_!"

"But sir...!"

"I'm counting on you, Jian! Get the pack out of here!" Said this, he left to find Qiao, running across the mayhem and releasing quick but lethal stockades whenever a boar was reckless enough to stand in his way...

* * *

><p>His plan had been too risky, but it had worked: using the distraction created by his men, Qiao had managed to glide to the cage from a nearby roof and take out the wolves guarding it. Shen's warriors could have killed Shu before he'd had the chance to get to her, but fortune had been on his side for once. Still, he was determined not to rely on luck again; the anguish he'd felt while approaching the cage, fearing that the canines would notice him and picturing what would have happened then... That moment, the moment where Shu's life was left to chance would remain fresh in his memory until his last day...<p>

The danger wasn't over yet. Spinning the halberd over his head, he waited, turning his head to make sure that no enemies were approaching from behind. He had to hold that position, in the center of the enemy group, until his men could fight their way towards him. For the time being, it was safer for Shu to remain inside the cage.

The peacock waved the spear with one arm, describing an arch that sliced the face of a wolf that got too close. A quick swing and the shaft passed under his wing, the blade of the weapon impaled another soldier that was lunging from behind. Qiao kicked him away and felt something odd with the halberd when the blade detached from the warrior's body: the pole was splintered near the base of the blade: the place he had used to deflect the sword that Shen had thrown at him, back at the Dōnggōng palace. The Yín yè had weakened, and the peacock was certain that it would break if he kept using it like that.

Another wolf was running at him. He got ready to fend him off; from his higher position and with the help from the archers posted on the roofs it was almost a child's play... Suddenly, he felt a pull on his train that caused him to loose balance, one of his feet got stuck between the bars of the cage. There was a second wolf behind him, trying to climb to the cage. Qiao stroke his head with the counterweight of the spear, and although the blow wasn't hard enough to knock him out, it drove him away. The blue peacock tried to get up, but the other wolf grabbed his neck and rose his sword to behead him.

"NO!" shouted Shu from inside the cage, unable to do anything but watching her father's death...

The canine's triumphant grin froze for a second before changing into a pain expression, his fingers twitched, releasing the peacock and dropping his weapon, and he collapsed, with an arrow sunk between his shoulder blades.

Qiao managed to release his foot and stood up, panting and massaging his throat with his free wing. Raising his head he saw that the wolves had opened a breach in his warrior's ring and some of them were fleeing out of the plaza. Shen must have done the same, because he (or his corpse) was nowhere to be seen. There was only a handful of wolves left standing, no more than fifteen. The rest of them had either died or escaped. However, Qiao knew from older experiences that a cornered wolf was more dangerous than ten of them in regular conditions, and his own group had been significantly reduced as well. Victory wasn't certain yet...

There was a gray wolf that seemed to be particularly fierce; he was fighting three boars at the same time and his growls and insults were so loud that they could be heard from where he was. Qiao watched him block a stockade, kick the soldier in the groin and hack the side of his neck when he fell on his knees. The second pig aimed at him with a spear, but the wolf spun on his feet to avoid the attack, and when the tip of the boar's weapon passed by his side without touching him, he dug his sword in the warrior's guts, leaving it pinned there and snatching the spear of his hooves.

Qiao lifted his wing, intending to drive the attention of one of his archers to order him to strike down the troublesome enemy...

He heard something like a flag waving behind him and turned around, brandishing the spear with lightning speed at the white blur that was almost over him. Shen blocked the strike with his sword and kicked Qiao on the face.

It was a fortune for the blue peacock that Shen wasn't wearing his metal talons, if he was, the kick would have ripped his head off. Its strength was sufficient to daze him and blur his vision. He fell off the cage and landed on his back, the shock took the air out of his lungs and loosened every muscle of his body. A second later, the shadow of his cousin falling on him blocked his view of the clouded sky. Qiao rolled on his back just in time to avoid being impaled and jumped back on his feet, grabbing the spear with both wings and aiming it at the white peacock, who lifted his sword and spun it almost playfully before lunging at him.

Shen crossed the distance between them leaning his body forward and lowering his head as much as he could, using his train to maintain his balance. A second before colliding with Qiao, he propelled himself upwards, aiming the sword right at the blue peacock's face. The attack was blocked in time, but he used his impulse to jump over the blue peacock's head. Upon landing behind him, he turned around with his wing fully extended, launching a horizontal slash at Qiao, who bent his neck to dodge it before spinning on his feet to trip him with his train.

Qiao knew in advance that Shen had jumped because his fan didn't hit anything, and, while not facing him, he thrusted the dull end of the spear under his wing. His heart jumped when he felt the weapon impacting something and heard a scream of surprise: he had hit Shen in mid air!

He turned, knowing what he would see: Shen lying on his back with his guard lowered for a few precious seconds. Seconds that he wouldn't let to go to waste.

Time seemed to flow slower for that moment... The blade of the Yín yè darted forward, aiming at the center of Shen's chest, producing a faint whisper as it's curved edges sliced the air. The last second stretched so much that it felt like hours...

The spell broke when Shen grabbed the shaft of the spear with his spare hand and diverted it on the last second. The blade scratched the side of his neck and struck the ground. Right after this he kicked Qiao's chest with both feet to drive him away and stood up with a certain difficulty, pressing with his wing the cut on his neck; it was shallow, but the blade had passed less than an inch away from his jugular.

"This was what I meant when I said you weren't a big deal, Shen" he said "Sometimes you may show some skills, but at the end you always end up failing!"

"Once again you are talking ahead of time, cousin" answered Shen "I haven't failed, I'm still standing!"

"And I'm going to fix that right now..."

The blue peacock waved the spear with both wings while running at Shen with renewed strength, and his cousin gave a few steps back while blocking his chained strikes. The white peacock was about to launch a feint to break Qiao's attack when he felt a large presence behind him and jumped aside just in time to avoid a boar's hammer that shook the ground when it failed to hit him.

Another boar joined the first one and wielded his axe at him. Without time to dodge it, Shen tried to block the attack, but it was so strong that it threw him against a house. He hit the wall with his wounded shoulder and fell to the ground. The sword slid off his fingers before he stood back up, leaning against the wall.

Qiao and the two boars were approaching cautiously, cornering him against the hut.

"As I said, you are already defeated" His cousin advanced, raising the halberd, ready to strike, and Shen ran at his encounter, retrieving his sword and pretending that he was going to break to the left; _and it worked!_ Qiao lowered the spear, aiming at the point in which he thought that Shen would be at in the next second; but the white peacock crossed his legs and changed his direction in the last second, passing by his right side and knocking him with his train.

The boar with the hammer waved his weapon at the peacock's knees in an attempt to break his legs, but the bird clung onto the weapon's shaft with his talons before jumping onto the warrior's head. The pig dropped the hammer and flailed his arms to shake him off, screeching in fear.

But a second later Shen had taken off; and flapping his wings he managed to get to the roof of the building, where an archer was aiming at one of the remaining wolves. The boar didn't notice him until he snatched the arrow off his bow and thrusted it under his chin.

The white peacock watched the pig take his hoof to his face before his eyes went blank and he collapsed, falling over the edge of the roof.

Something scratched the tiles behind him and he turned to find Qiao, who had climbed after him.

"There's no use in running away, little ghost!" he claimed, approaching slowly with a murderous expression in his face and fanning his train, the yellow eyes of his feathers fixed on Shen...

* * *

><p>Shu watched her father flap his wings to get onto the roof of the hut while the two boars stood there and watched the peacocks fighting.<p>

The young peahen couldn't help it but to feel a small inkling of rage against them for their uselessness.

"Hey, you two!" she called "Come here and let me out! Quickly!"

The soldiers looked at her as if they had just noticed her presence and one of them approached the cage.

"You better take a step back, mi lady" he said.

"Yes, yes! Hurry up!" she urged, seeing her father and lord Shen jumping to an adjacent roof, moving farther away.

The boar rose his axe over his head to hack the bamboo bars and Shu covered her face to protect her eyes from the splinters...

"AGHHH!" she looked at the warrior and saw the gray big wolf, Huïsè, standing next to him. He had pierced the boar's side; his sword had sank between his ribs almost almost until the hilt.

The other boar ran at him wielding his hammer. Huïsè ducked just in time and avoided the attack. Then he straightened his pose like a spring, stabbing the enemy right below the chest.

He watched the dead soldier hit the ground before turning to look at the cage. Shu held back his stare, trying to hide the shock that witnessing that brief bloodbath had caused her.

The wolf approached her and severed the knots that held one of the bars in its place with a hit of his sword, leaving an opening big enough to allow Shu to walk out of the cage.

"Out" he said; but she remained inside.

Huïsè drove his free hand between the bars and grabbed the neck of her rope, after which he pulled her outside effortlessly.

"You're coming with me, your highness, and you better collaborate with me or I'll be forced to chop off those pretty legs off and drag you to the ship, is that clear?" he said.

The only response he got from Shu was a stomp on his right foot, after which she tried to run away, but the gray wolf sprang his arm in a heartbeat and caught the peahen by the neck.

"I'm not kidding, girl" he growled, bringing her face closer to his "It appears that I'll have to prove it..."

A group of boars surrounded them and the gray wolf violently turned the princess around and placed one arm around her chest while pressing his sword under her beak.

"Stay back!" he ordered, and the boars obeyed. The rest of the wolves had either died or fled; he was the last one standing. The remaining boars were temporarily divided and disorganized; some of them were going after the wolves, some were tending their wounded men and some were gathering around him, forming a tight circle.

Huïsè gave a step back, pressing the peahen against him and looking everywhere, trying to find a way out. Until now, he was lucky that none of the archers had noticed him. This was because their attention had been caught by something else: the couple of peacocks fighting on the roofs. The boars had their bows tensed, aimed at lord Shen, but they hadn't shot yet, as they where afraid of hitting Qiao. One of them was approaching the two birds to get a better shot; when he was close enough, he placed an arrow on the string of his bow and fired.

Maybe it was because of his superb reflexes, maybe it happened out of luck: The white peacock drew his head back a moment before the projectile reached him. His whiskers waved when the arrow passed an inch away from his neck and he staggered in surprise.

Taking advantage of this distraction, Qiao brandished the Yín yè at his cousin, reaching his armed wing.

Shen stepped back, covering the cut in his forearm with his other hand. For a brief instant his fingers stopped responding and he dropped the sword. Qiao closed their distance in a heartbeat and kicked the weapon over the edge of the rooftop.

"Honestly, I'd prefer you to suffer more..." he said, pointing at Shen's heart with the spear "... But because of my daughter's compassionate heart, I'll give you a clean, fast death"

"How nice of you..."

"It's far better than what you deserve, but you've already spent too much time amongst the living" stated the blue peacock "Farewell, Shen, I'll see you in hell..."

"Lord Shen!" called someone. The white peacock searched for the source of the cry and spotted Huïsè, surrounded by boars and holding Shu between his arms. He had tossed his sword at him, to give him a last chance to survive at the cost of his own life...

His fingers caught the sword in mid air. Right on time, he diverted Qiao's stockade and launched a slash at his neck. The blue peacock dodged it, but Shen used his initial burst to spin around an trip him with his train. He was about to strike the final blow but he had to jump back to avoid another arrow; the archers were too close, the one that had fired twice was already standing in the adjacent roof, and was placing another arrow in his bow. This time he wouldn't miss. Shen chose to take his leave.

"It seems that my clean, fast death is going to have to wait..." said Shen, sheathing the sword in his belt and walking towards the edge of the roof, giving him a wry look over his shoulder "...We'll settle this over the burning ruins of your city"

He extended his wings and fanned his train, hoping that his injured body would allow him to glide all the way to the dock.

"Don't run, coward!" exclaimed Qiao, leaning on the spear to stand up.

"Should you be minding _me_ right now, cousin?" asked the white peacock "Your daughter is about to become Huïsè's final kill..."

The blue peacock's eyes widened in terror and he turned around to look at the plaza. Shen gave a haughty smirk and he took off, lowering his head to avoid a new incoming arrow...

* * *

><p>The second in which the sword left his hand, Shu began to struggle with all her strength, and Huïsè knew that it was only a matter of seconds before every boar in the plaza jumped over him.<p>

He was at the limit of his resistance; he didn't have the strength to fight his way out. Even holding the peahen still was getting difficult...

There was a hooves noise behind him. The gray wolf stepped aside in the last second and kneed the boar in the stomach.

_I'm not going to die here_ he stated to himself, and he lunged at the nearest enemy, ignoring Shu's wings flapping on his face and her frantic squeaks.

All the boars lunged at him at once, and before any of them could touch him, Huïsè threw the princess at the warrior in front of him. The boar opened his arms to receive the peahen's light body, and fell on his back when he caught her. A second later, the gray wolf jumped over him and ran away, escaping trough the dirty road that led to the port. At the same time that lord Shen escaped from Qiao...

The blue peacock looked at the plaza, not caring that he had left his back exposed to a treacherous attack. Fearing that he would see his daughter killed. Instead, he saw the gray wolf escaping the plaza and the boars gathering around a soldier that was lying on the ground, embracing a small body dressed with a ragged silk robe.

His heart froze for a horrible second when Shu didn't move. His mouth dried and a cold chill descended trough his spine...

_Please gods don't let her be dead... Please_

Her head rose and Qiao felt the chill wear off.

He sighed in relief and went to meet his daughter. Everything was fine, the enemy had been defeated and Shu was safe...

_No, she isn't_, thought the blue peacock, holding his steps and turning to look at the white figure gliding away. _If Shen leaves now, he will become a greater threat... Shu will never be safe as long as he lives_...

* * *

><p>There was a distance of about five hundred meters between the village and the coast, and shortly after taking off, Shen knew that he would not be able to cross it flying. He was exhausted, full of bruises and he suspected that the arrow wound of his shoulder had re opened.<p>

He had almost reached the tower when he noticed that he was loosing altitude alarmingly fast, and he wasn't even halfway there. He had reached the point where firm ground ended, though. The soil became sandy and harder to walk on (for a bird with a heavy tail and legs not fit for walking trough sand, such as himself).

He flapped once but it was futile, his sore wings could no longer hold him in the air. Once he landed, he would become slower than a turtle. If Qiao was clever enough to send the boars after him, they would catch him in no time.

He spotted Huïsè near the base of the tower. He was running on all fours and hadn't noticed him. Maybe he could carry him to the docks, thought Shen, putting aside his pride, which until now had been the main cause of all his problems.

He was about to call the gray wolf when a set of claws dug into his back, ripping his robe and feathers. He twisted his neck to look back and spotted a fuzz of blue feathers before Qiao pushed him downwards.

The noise of their struggle alerted the gray wolf, who stopped running and looked back.

The white peacock violently hit the floor with a pain caw, and it took him a few seconds to bring himself together and stand up, shaking and panting. His cousin gently touched the ground ahead of him, blocking his way, and lowered his train with parsimony. He was holding the Yín yè spear on his beak.

"No more running, Shen" he said, grabbing the weapon with his wing and spinning it around his body before placing it under his arm. For a second, Shen had a flashback of that night in the fireworks factory, when that panda had said exactly the same, swinging a wok in a very similar way to how the blue peacock had handled the spear.

He had lost to the panda because he had lost his temple, scared by the soothsayer's prophecy, he had failed to think quickly and to adapt to new adverse situations... _Well..._ He thought, unsheathing his sword... _That won't happen today._

"Lord Shen!" called Huïsè, standing a few meters behind Qiao. He was unarmed, but Shen knew that it wouldn't deter him of attacking the blue peacock. He had no chance against him, though.

"Get out of here Huïsè!" exclaimed Shen "Tell the others to leave before the boars get to the docks!"

"But sir...!"

"Damn it! Run, you imbecile!" exploded the white peacock, peering over his shoulder. The town wasn't too far and some boars were heading their way.

Huïsè gave a slow step forward, flashing his fangs at Qiao. _Damn the wolves and their stupid loyalty_, thought Shen

"Come on, dog" said the blue peacock, looking at the wolf but pointing the spear at Shen "I dare you..."

The canine emitted a loud growl and clenched his fists; his anger grew bigger when the peacock gave him an arrogant smirk. He was determined to rip that cursed bird's beak off before killing him... A red mist had clouded both his sight and mind.

"Huïsè! Don't!" Lord Shen's voice drove him back to sanity. The vibration in his throat fainted and he loosened his lips "Don't worry about me!" the peacock kept talking "I'll be right after you! Now _please_ go!"

The wolf hesitated for a moment before turning around and resuming his race to the coast.

"What a naive minion you got yourself there, cousin" commented Qiao "He actually left, as if he thought you had a chance to survive on your own... Or maybe he finally understood that you will always lead him right to defeat and chose to leave you"

Shen addressed him a hate glare and, most to Qiao's surprise, he turned around and ran away, headed for the tower, which was about thirty meters away. The blue peacock couldn't help it but to burst into laugher before chasing after him.

He spotted the red eyes of his cousin's train disappearing trough the door. The boars were approaching him, running with heavy strides.

"Took you long enough, you slow scum bags!" he yelled when they were within his voice reach "Come with me! He's trapped inside the tower!"

Qiao reached the building first and he rushed inside without waiting for his men.

The first floor of the tower looked a lot like master Renshu's school: age-worn stone tiles, naked walls wooden ceiling...

There was a difference, though: the only window of the room had iron bars, projecting a striped shadow on the floor.

A ladder led to the next floor trough a trapdoor on the roof. Shen must be hiding there, ready to slice the head of anyone who tried to go after him.

Qiao approached the ladder cautiously, hearing the boars' snorts behind him. He turned to greet them in time to see Shen, who had been hiding behind the door, closing it with a slam in the face of his soldiers and locking it with a heavy iron latch.

"Let's see how this turns out without... Third ones intervening" said the white bird.

* * *

><p>Shu walked nervously in front of the couple of boars that had stayed behind to protect her. Her father had just looked at her for a brief instant to make sure that she was alright and then he had ordered the soldiers to follow him. A few seconds after that the plaza went silent again, except for the noise of the peahen's feet scratching the ground.<p>

"Could you calm down, girl?" asked one of the boars, walking between the dead wolves scattered an the floor, occasionally kicking one of them to make sure it was really dead "Lord Qiao is a good warrior, he knows what he's doing. He'll be fine..."

"You don't know that" stated Shu, interrupting her walk and cocking her head to talk at the soldier "It's lord Shen the one my father is fighting, hes not an ordinary warrior like you, and besides, there are still some wolves around here..."

"Maybe you didn't see it from your cage, _princess_..." the other boar, who was sitting against a house, laughed of his partner's mocking tone. Shu wondered If they would've dared to act so insolent had her father been there "... But that over-feathered bird, no offense meant, ran away, along with his pitiful group of scabby dogs... We've won"

"What I saw from the cage was that the scabby dogs and the over feathered bird did a number on you" she signaled the space of the plaza with a gesture of her wings "I see more dead boars than wolves. How many of you are left? Fifteen? Twenty? What about if the wolves weren't fleeing but retreating to prepare an ambush?!" Her unease grew bigger with each word that left her beak. Now that he thought of it, it was perfectly possible...

"Tell me something, princess... Are you a military strategist? Do you know anything about ambushes?"

"No"

"You need to hide to ambush someone, even you should know that, and there is not a single tree, rock or hill between this town and the sea. We have archers, which means that we can diminish their numbers and crush their spirit even more before getting on close range. Besides, Lord Qiao is really pissed... I wouldn't surprise if he killed all the wolves by himself without the help of our men..."

"But he will catch Shen alive" claimed the other boar "He's going to show that bastard what happens when his daughter is threatened... I heard him mutter about it when we were waiting, about the stuff he's planing to do to Shen. All I can say is that... Compared to their lord, the wolves are lucky..."

So, if lord Shen didn't kill her father, he would turn him into a monster. That was what Shu had tried to avoid. And she had failed... In one way or another, her father would die by Shen's doing... Either by his blade or consumed by the fire of his hatred.

She couldn't loose him. Her mother couldn't loose him.

"I have to save him..." she said, and was about to go after the blue peacock when the boar that had been sitting blocked her way.

"Move" she hissed. With her fully stretched neck, the tip of her crest was below the soldier's chin.

"We were ordered to protect you, princess, and that is what we'll do" said the other boar, standing behind her.

"Well, now I order you to let me go help my father!"

"You'll help him the most by staying here and not distracting him. You must understand, princess, it is good that you worry about him, but right now, you are more of a threat for us than lord Shen is for your father" The two boars laughed at that commentary and didn't notice Shu's expression growing darker.

"Let-me-_trough_!" she ended the order with a loud voice and kicking the large stomach shaking in her face. When the boar bent on his waist she grabbed the sword out of his belt and hit the side of his face with the hilt. Even though the strike wasn't hard enough to knock him out, it did threw him off his feet. Shu Quickly turned around and pointed the sword at the other boar's throat. The pig lifted his hooves as a sign of submission.

"I'm going to leave now" stated the peahen "Don't follow me unless it is to help my father" said this she turned around and ran away...

* * *

><p><em>The one who tries to dominate the steel dragon will discover that it only has one master...<em>

The soothsayer's voice echoed in Qiao's mind as he climbed the ladder as fast as he could. He heard a slashing sound behind him when he crossed the trapdoor and he felt that Shen's sword had sliced some of his train feathers. He moved away from the ladder, knowing that his cousin was right behind him, and when the white peacock emerged on the aperture, he pushed the trapdoor with all his strength.

Shen had climbed too fast for the impact to throw him back at the inferior floor, however, it still knocked him off his feet, and when the door closed it trapped the tip of his train.

Qiao stood on top of the door to prevent Shen of breaking free. The peacock, however, swung his sword at his own tail to cut himself free and rolled on his back.

The two birds had been chasing each other all the way up to the third floor, none of them succeeding to land a critical blow.

This floor was the last one. There were no walls, only four pillars, one on each corner, to support the roof. The pyre was located in the center of the room. It was composed by a stone base on top of which laid an iron basket, meant to hold the burning wood. There was a large hole in the roof to allow the smoke to flow away and to prevent the fire of burning the beams. The villagers had forgotten to close it and the gray clouds could be seen trough it.

Shen noticed a rising wind current sweeping the floor, dispersing the remaining ashes from the pyre. How long had it been since the ambush? Probably no more than half an hour. Yet, the storm was about to begin... The first drops would fall within minutes.

Holding his sword up, pointing at Qiao, he looked at the dock. It was clearly visible from there. A white, ghostly shape rose between the sea of masts: a sail. The wolves were getting ready to leave...

Shen's plan had been to climb to the top of the tower and use its height to achieve a longer flight, hopefully long enough to cover the distance to the docks.

Qiao guessed what he was thinking.

"Are you sure you want to do that? You will never make it with this wind. As a matter of fact, you wont make it off this floor"

Shen drove his look back to his cousin. The blue peacock wasn't very skilled at ranged combat, but he knew that he would throw the spear like a javelin the second in which he tried to jump over the edge, and at that distance, he would certainly hit him. He had to kill Qiao now; it was the only way out. And he had to do it before the ship went too far from the coastline, the wind grew stronger or, as the faint smashes rising from the first floor reminded him, the boars tore down the door.

There wasn't time for exchanging insults. Without a word, he lunged at his cousin.

_The one who tries to tame the steel dragon will have his soul destroyed by the only master of the dragon..._

_No! It won't happen!_ thought Qiao, thrusting the spear forward. Shen jumped aside and gave a hack at his neck. His blade hit the stone base and ripped a few shards of it.

The white peacock's movements were slower, and it wasn't an act. He was tired... And so was Qiao...

The blue peacock tired to trip Shen with his broken train, and at the same time, he held the Yín yè by the end of its shaft and swung it over his head, pointing it backwards.

Shen jumped up and backwards, climbing on top of the pyre and managing to avoid both the spear and the blade. Qiao laughed when he saw him perched on the fireplace.

"Mind you, I had considered burning you alive, Little ghost. If fire is your last wish I'll make sure it is fulfilled..."

"So much for a fast death then... What happened with your daughter's compassionate heart?"

"I'm sure she'll make an exception with you" Qiao swung the halberd at Shen's legs, but the white peacock jumped and flapped at the same time, gaining enough impulse to reach the hole in the roof

"No!" yelled Qiao, going after him.

* * *

><p>When Shu reached the tower she found the boars gathered at the door, the bulkier one ramming at it with limited success.<p>

"Princess!" exclaimed one of the pigs, noticing her "What are you doing here? It isn't safe! You!" he called another boar "Escort her to..."

"Where is my father?" interrupted the peahen.

"Inside the tower, fighting Shen" answered the soldier "That devious bastard locked us out, but the door won't hold for long. We are going to help your father, mi lady, but you _have_ to get out of here"

"It's my father the one fighting that madman, you idiot! I'm not going anywhere!" exploded the princess. The large boar hit the door again, and it didn't move an inch. They would never make it in time, lord Qiao could die at any moment moment... If he hadn't already.

Shu walked around the building, examining the walls, with the boar following her, asking her in a thousand ways to listen to him.

The window in the first floor had bars, but the one in the second one didn't! It was very high, though, and she wondered if she could fly all the way up to it.

"Please mi lady, I'm begging you!" the boar stood in front of her, putting his hands together and leaning forward in an imploring manner... _Perfect_.

Just as she had seen Shen doing it at the plaza, Shu jumped on the soldier's head and took off, using the burst of the pig straightening his body by the surprise. She flapped her wings to fly higher and entered trough the window without a scratch...

* * *

><p><em>The one who conceived it and brought it to this world, the one who has escaped death and has always worn it's mark.<em>

The ceiling of the tower was flat, not leaned and forming a pyramid like the traditional Chinese roofs. It was more like a platform, an open fourth floor.

When Qiao emerged from the hole, he felt a burning pain on his back and tripped with his own feet, falling on his chest. He panted and pressed his beak shut because of the pain; there was a long vertical slash on his back, a few inches to the left of his spine. He heard Shen's claws ticking against the tiles behind him, and turned to face him.

The white peacock was standing there, admiring the blood dripping from his sword.

"You'll never win, Shen" stated Qiao, standing up, folding his left wing. His legs were shaking by the effort "You were doomed since the moment you attacked the palace..."

"You can repeat that all the times you want, it won't become true" replied his cousin, moving forward "You will no longer stand in my way..."

"That's where you're wrong, Little ghost. Even if you kill me, you will fail... It's too late for you"

"What are you talking about" inquired Shen.

"Before coming here, I sent messengers to the Valley of Peace, the Cliff of the Singing Waters and the Jingzhou city masters, telling that you are alive" he laughed at the white peacock's shocked expression "Yes... And before you think of asking for the pheasants' help: I also sent a message to Yan's capital; my successor and all my allies are moving against Qing... I guess the Koreans are going to attack as well, they've always wanted to control that region... Not even your weapons are going to save them when every single army in the region marches against their city..."

"You are lying..." muttered Shen, frowning.

"You can repeat that all the times you want. It won't become true" mocked the blue peacock "But don't worry, you won't live to see your plans collapse... _Again_"

He waved the spear at Shen's head, and the white peacock blocked the attack by hitting the shaft of the halberd with his sword. Splinters left the wooden mast when the blade got stuck in it. Reacting fast, Qiao kicked Shen's weapon off his hand before he could pull it free; then he hit him twice with the halberd's counterweight: the first time right in the center of his chest and the second one in his lower jaw.

The white peacock fell on his back, spitting blood.

_He will return to claim his creation..._

_You were wrong, soothsayer._ thought Qiao, watching Shen struggling to get up. The white peacock fixed his red eyes on his. There was no fear in them, and no pleadings coming out of his beak.

"Good, look your death at the eyes, Shen, don't turn away..."

The blue peacock stroke, his eyes widening in excitement, holding his cousin's look, wanting to see those red eyes on the exact second in which life abandoned them...

Shen however, was focused on the Yín yè spear, following its trajectory as it came closer...

On the last second, Shen lunged forward, his hand grasping the halberd under the base of the blade and twisting it upwards...

With a loud crack and a shower of splinters, the shaft finally snapped. Qiao looked at the waved blade on Shen's hand, and the final words of the prophecy flooded his mind as it slashed trough his chest...

_And he will bring death and ruin upon the one who tried to defy the white emperor..._

* * *

><p>Shu climbed on the metal basket and jumped onto the ceiling, her heart beating in her ears, fearing what she would find...<p>

The first thing she saw was lord Shen. He had his back turned on her and was standing completely still, his crest, robe and train waving in the wind. He hadn't noticed her, apparently.

What were they doing? The tension filled Shu's stomach with ice.

Her father was standing in front of him, with his beak slightly opened and his brown eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and disbelief. And then, slowly, like the beginning of an avalanche watched from the distance, he collapsed...

"_NO!_" screamed Shu, raising the sword and lunging at Shen.

The white peacock diverted her attack without even turning to face her and disarmed her with astonishing ease. Shu watched the weapon escape her hands and fall over the edge of the platform.

Without a word, lord Shen walked away from her.

The peahen lost her mind... Everything that mattered now was killing Shen, even more than being with her father, because Lord Qiao would be saved if she killed the white demon that had returned from the grave to take his soul. This was the only thing she knew...

Her view was blurred with tears. Forgetting that she was unarmed, forgetting that Shen was a skilled master and she was hardly an amateur compared to him and forgetting that this was exactly what she had tried to prevent her father from doing, she ran at the white peacock, determined to kill him, using her beak and claws if it was necessary.

She clenched her talons when she was close enough and got ready to dig them in his back, but before she could jump, the white peacock turned and brandished the blade at her face.

"Ahhhrg!" She fell back, screaming in pain and covering her left eye with her wing, which was instantly soaked in blood.

Lord Shen held her an indifferent look for a few seconds, watching her sob in agony, and then he jumped off the roof, riding the air currents to glide away...

Shu's madness wore off the second Lord Shen was gone. She stood up, her hand still pressing against her face, whining in pain, and approached her father.

Lord Qiao was lying on his back, he had a hideous looking wound that crossed his chest from his right shoulder to the left side of his stomach. The Yín yè's blade had cut trough him as if he wasn't there... His breathing had turned into trembling pants, each one weaker than the previous one.

"Dad..." she said with a broken voice, tears springing of her untouched eye. She kneeled next to him and held his wing "Dad, I'm so sorry... This is my fault... I was just trying to help but everything I did was..." she couldn't go on. Her chest convulsed with a violent sob.

Qiao wanted to say something, but he discovered that he couldn't talk, his voice had extinguished.

_This is the end_, he thought, _I'm dying and I can't even say goodbye... The soothsayer was right... She was right the whole time and I didn't listen to her..._ He felt his face wet, Shu's tears were dripping on him, along with drops of her blood. Seeing her wounded like this would have made his blood to boil in rage and hatred, but he had spent all his life hating. He had hated so much that he had neglected the tiny bit of love that he had achieved.

"I'm going to kill him, dad... I swear..." sobbed Shu closing her eye "I won't rest until he's dead..."

Her father's wing agitated and she looked back at him. His eyes had filled with tears and with a supreme effort, he shook his head.

_Don't... Don't live tied to your hatred, like Shen or myself..._ There was nothing he wanted more than telling this to her, to save her from sharing his curse...

Another drop hit his face, but this time it was a rain drop, the monsoon had finally started.

_What a shame, the soothsayer said it was a beautiful spectacle... I wish I was able to see it with Xiu and Shu..._

Suddenly, he remembered something. He searched his robe with his wing, hoping that he hadn't thrown it away... _There!_ he extracted a blood stained paper, the letter the soothsayer had given him before he murdered her: " Keep this with you until the beginning of the rain season, at that moment, give it to your daughter".

_Whatever this is, I hope it helps you saving yourself from sharing my fate..._

He placed it on her wing before his arm stopped working. He stared at the gray sky as his body went cold... His last thoughts were for the two peahens that had illuminated his existence.

_I wish that Xiu was here as well._ he thought as the gray clouds became white and brighter _I wish that the three of us could be together... One last time_ Then he sank in that white glow...

* * *

><p>"You left him!" Jian's enraged screams shook the entire deck "You abandoned him, you bastard!"<p>

Two wolves were holding her so that she wouldn't jump on Huïsè, who was standing in front of her, looking at his feet, each word she pronounced felt like a kick to his stomach.

"He was counting on you! And you betrayed him!"

"Jian! That's enough!" intervened Chao, emerging between the ring of curious gathered around her.

The female finally stopped struggling and stood still, hanging by her arms from the two wolves. Her fur was already soaked by the rain, which helped to conceal that she was crying.

The black wolf looked at her for a few seconds before facing the rest of the pack, desolated faces were all he saw. He had counted them: twenty seven, including himself. To that had reduced the once most powerful pack of all China...

What were they going to do now? He had to remain strong for the pack's sake and find the way to lead them out of that situation. He was about to say something but a female spoke ahead of him.

"What are we going to do now?"

"Where should we go?" asked another wolf. Chao's mouth opened but he didn't know what to answer.

"Lord Shen is dead, our vows no longer tie us" yet another man intervened "I don't know you but I intend to get off this boat and leave on my own... We're no longer a pack..."

The black wolf panicked when he saw several wolves nodding at those words. And he wouldn't come up with anything to dissuade them! If only the previous alpha, or lord Shen were there...

"We haven't left the cove yet" continued the man "We should disembark a few kilometers north, to avoid the rest of the boars and..." His speech ended abruptly, and he stared at something behind Chao with an astonished expression.

"We're sticking to our original plan" stated a calm voice. The black wolf turned and saw lord Shen standing in the railing, holding to the rigging with one hand and panting by the effort of gliding all the way there.

All the wolves had turned to face him and most of them had kneeled in reverence.

The peacock jumped onto the deck.

"I know that things aren't looking good, but I can assure you that this is a temporary setback... Out of which we came out victorious" he walked at the center of the group and extracted the blade of the Yín yè spear of his belt. The blood on it was being washed off by the rain. Shen lifted it over his head, so that everyone could see it. "This is the first of many, you have my word!"

He sheathed the blade and looked at Chao, who still looked shocked.

"Set course to Qing city... The conquer of China begins now..."

* * *

><p><strong>A.N<strong>

**And so concludes the first part.**

**What did you think of it? Did you like it/hate it? Do you want me to continue? Please review (wow, that sounded needy).**

**Any advice or constructive criticism is welcome.**


	12. Bad news

Here are some bad news for the people liked the story, which I think you all saw coming: The white emperor is now officially cancelled. There are many reasons behind this but to put it shortly I will say that my muse died, and I'm moving on to new projects.

This fic started in 2011 during my Shen hype and as a learning exercise, and I would like to think it served its purpose. Plus, I had a great time writing it and you guys who read and supported me are incredible.

Some people offered me to take charge of the story so if there's still someone interested just let me know. I intended it to be a trilogy and had the second part (and to some extent the third) more or less figured out, you can have the notes.

So, I guess that's all... Thanks a lot for reading me guys, you rock :D


End file.
